is freer from the foxy pulp, and is smaller. Some pre¬ 
fer it to the Isabella, but more usually it is placed be¬ 
low, by those who try both. 
Origin of these grapes. —On this subject a corres¬ 
pondent remarks in a late letter,—“ I observe that 
some late writers pretend that the Isabella is a variety 
of the old Asiatic vine. I don’t believe it. Many fel¬ 
lows write with a most comfortable share of ignorance. 
Professor Lindley’s essential character of this spe¬ 
cies is, “ leaves sinuate, naked.” I know not wh&t 
“naked” means in a technical sense, but our Isabella 
is not more sinuate than the Alexander or Catawba, 
and most remarkably less so than the Sweet Water, 
which is a genuine Asiatic. Now, in this state of the 
argument, the musky or foxy flavor of the Isabella, 
ought to decide the point, and remand it back among 
American grapes, where it properly belongs. Apro¬ 
pos—Loudon says, ‘Many imported varieties have 
been raised by the American gardeners, [from the Fox 
grape] and have been sent to Europe under the names 
of the Bland , the Isabella , the Oswego, Tokay, Ac., 
but they are all tainted with the bad taste peculiar to 
the species.’ The Bland has no such taint.” 
Destruction of Orchards by Mice. 
Lewis F. Allen gives an account in a former number 
of the Agricultor, of his adventures with mice, in or¬ 
charding. He has orchards eight years old and under, 
and by means of good cultivation, has kept them in 
fine condition, and never lost but few out of thousands 
Those that stood in grass ground, wei'e dug around, and 
the surface of the earth kept clear for some feet about 
them. But in a part of his orchard, in 1851, as he did 
not wish to plow up the excellent meadow, in which the 
trees grew, he had four furrows plowed on each side of 
every row, so as to loosen the earth, and keep the trees 
in active growth—in which he was quite successful.— 
The succeeding winter was severe, snowy, and pro¬ 
tracted ; and the rough surface, consisting of inverted 
gross, and grass not inverted, formed admirable skulk¬ 
ing places.for the mice, and the havoc they committed 
was extraordinary. Many trees were entirely girdled, 
and some “ completely uprooted—the mice having dug 
into the ground and made their burrows among the 
roots, cutting them clean off, and on the thawing of the 
ground they fell out, gnawed down a foot under ground, 
and sharpened like bean poles.” Where the ground 
was cultivated with corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and 
beans, trees were occasionally cut, and near the fences 
where the snow drifted most were girdled,—always 
above the ground, and in some cases three or four feet 
high. His present practice is to remove all grass and 
rubbish from the trees, and pack fresh earth about the 
trunks. 
For the past eight years, we have adopted th8 prac¬ 
tice of making a small conical embankment around the 
trunk of each tree, late in the autumn, about 9 or 10 
inches high. This has never, in hundreds of instances 
failed to afford complete protection, although some of 
the trees so treated have stood in ground otherwise cov¬ 
ered with long grass. When the mice, which burrow 
under the snow, come in contact with a steep and 
smooth embankment of fresh earth, they never ascend , 
but turn to the right or left. There is only one in¬ 
stance in which this remedy fails;—as it has with the 
writer, among his cleanly cultivated nursery trees,— 
and this is in such localities as favor the deep drifting 
of snow. When such drifts become crusted, mice will 
travel over the crust, sometimes two or three feet above 
the earth, and wherever they come in contact with 
trees in these upper journeys, they are sure to strip 
them. In such cases, the only remedy is to remove the 
cause of the. drifts, or to avoid planting trees whore the 
winds sweep in eddies. 
Autumn Transplanting of Fruit Trees. 
Hovey’s Magazine gives the following reasons why 
autumn transplanting is preferable to that of spring, on 
all soils in good condition for the growth of fruit-trees, 
and they should be planted in no other : 
Autumn planting is better than spring for the fol¬ 
lowing reasons: 
1. The time is longer than spring. 
2. The ground is in better condition. 
3. The trees are then in the most dormant state, 
4. The roots, where cut, heal better, and are pre¬ 
pared to send out fresh ones even before the frost is out 
of the ground. 
5. The winter and ftpring rains settle the earth around 
the roots. 
6. The trees are well established before warm weath¬ 
er overtakes them. 
Western Apples. 
Among the collections of western fruits, which wo 
have received the present autumn, our special thanks 
are due to Dr. Kennicott, and to J. C. Brayton and 
A. R. Whitney, of the Convention of North Western 
Fruit Growers, held at Chicago, for a most valuable 
collection of one hundred and ticenty varieties, made 
up of selections from the specimens exhibited there, 
many of them of great interest and value. In looking 
over this collection, we were particularly struck with 
the great size and beauty of some of the specimens, as 
compared with those grown in the north-eastern states. 
Specimens of the Jonathan apple from Illinois were as 
large as good Spitzenburghs or Baldwins, and possess¬ 
ed a brilliancy and smoothness.very rarely equaled by 
any fruit. Such apples would unquestionably sell in 
New-York or Philadelphia for five or six dollars a bar¬ 
rel, at the least. Some of the Fallowater were as large 
as well grown Fall Pippins; and Rambos were at least 
double the size of ours. Other sorts, as for instance the 
Esopus , Spitzenburgh, Pomrne Grise, Pennock, Maid¬ 
en’s Blush, and Yellow Bellflower, possessed no supe¬ 
riority in size We intend to report further, after more 
mature examination of the specimens. 
We are also indebted to J. C. Teas, for a fine collec¬ 
tion of some sixty varieties , from the southern portion 
of Indiana, many of them exclusively western or 
southern apples, and some of them indicating the same 
superiority in size and appearance noticed above. 
