1SG8.] 
103 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Sweet, known also as the “Ice Cream;” the true 
Ice cream is, however, quite a different melon, 
the seeds being white, and the flesh of a much 
paler red. [Mountain Sprout.] 
Okra or Gombo.— Dwarf Long Podded is ex¬ 
tensively grown, and more popular every year. 
Onion. —Our market gardeners confine them¬ 
selves to two sorts, the Large Yellow Strasburg, 
and White or Silver Skin, and these must be 
grown from Philadelphia seed, or tiny cannot 
produce the beautiful hard little sets, or buttons, 
which can be grown nowhere to such perfection 
as here; immense quantities are raised. 
Parsnip. — Large Sugar or Hollow Crown is the 
leading sort. [ Student is raised to some extent.] 
Peas. — Extra Early, known also as “ Lan- 
dreth’s Extra Early,” “Dreer’s Extra Early,” 
“ Hancock’s Early,” is the leading sort, and 
the names of different growers are attached to 
designate it. It is peculiar to the soil and 
climate of New Jersey, and I believe the seed 
can nowhere be grown to produce such early 
crops as on the light sandy soils of New Jersey. 
The great object with a market gardener is to 
get a pea that will blossom nearly all at one 
time, so as to set evenly, that the crop may be 
gathered in a few pickings; this the New Jersey 
grown peas will do. They are therefore sought 
after by all extensive growers, and immense 
quantities are grown to supply the pea growers 
in other sections; our market gardeners will 
buy no other seed if these can be had. They are 
also planted towards fall for a late crop. The 
following varieties are also more or less grown : 
Blackeyed Marrowfat, Blue Imperial, Champion 
of England, and Eugenie. [Daniel O'Rourke.] 
Pepper. — Large Sweet Bell for stuffed 
pickles, Tomato shaped Cayenne. 
RAorsn .—Long Scarlet Short-top, White and 
Red Turnip, White Summer, Yelloio Turnip, 
Black Spanish. 
Salsify or Oyster Plant. — The home¬ 
grown seed preferred to the imported. 
Spinach. — Roundleaved Savoy extensively 
sown in the fall for early spring use. 
Squash. —Early Bush, Long Green Crookneck, 
for summer; Hubbard and Boston Marrow for 
winter use. 
Tomato. — JY. J. Extra Early, Large Smooth 
Red, Tilden, Cook's Favorite, Fejee , are all more 
or less grown, much depending on the locality 
and the time they are wanted for market. The 
Tilden and Cook's Favorite are great favorites in 
our market, as they are both solid, smooth, and 
of a beautiful red color. The Cook's Favorite is 
also extensively grown for late use, canning, etc. 
For this purpose the plants are set out about the 
1st of July, and upon the approach of frost the 
unripe fruit is picked and ripened under glass; we 
have kept them in this way until Christmas. It is 
folly to condemn a variety as worthless, as so 
much depends on the season, soil, and climate, 
as well as the seed, of which so much of a 
worthless, mixed quality is yearly offered. 
Turnip. — Early White Flat Butch, Purple- 
top Strap-leaved, and Purple-top Swede or Ruta 
Buga are the only kinds grown to any extent. 
- — > --■ . 
Catalpa K/Empferi. — This Catalpa is a 
great improvement on our commpn species; it is 
hardy, and forms a neat, small tree, with a reg¬ 
ular, spreading head. Mr. Meehan, in an ar¬ 
ticle in the Horticultural Annual, mentions this 
species, and says, that he never knew it to 
bloom. It has bloomed for several years with 
Mr. W. S. Carpenter, in Westchester Co., N. Y., 
and is ornamental in foliage, flower, and fruit. 
It produces its seed pods in such abundance, as 
to impart a striking character to the tree; they 
are more slender than those of the common 
species, and are in clusters of fifty or more. 
The Grape Vine—How it Grows and Wliat 
to Do with it. — Article. 
As introductory to a description of the meth¬ 
ods of training the vine, we gave on page G2, 
(February,) some points in its anatomy, which 
we briefly recapitulate. A growing shoot of a 
vine is a series of nodes, at each of which is 
borne a leaf upon one side, and generally a ten¬ 
dril, or a cluster of grapes upon the other; at the 
angle where the leaf and stem meet are two 
buds. These buds are of the greatest import¬ 
ance : one of them is to grow the next year, and 
lies dormant during the summer it is formed, 
acquiring strength for its proper development; 
the other bud pushes the same summer,and forms 
a small branch in the axil of the leaf. This 
branch is by vine growers called the lateral. 
In figure ,3 we have the node, and its leaf 
with the tendril opposite, the larger part of which 
is removed to save room. Where the leaf and 
stem join we have the bud,/, and a side branch, 
or lateral. The lateral is an exact repetition of 
the stem from which it sprung, and, like it, is a 
succession of nodes with leaves, buds, etc. In 
this figure the lateral is shown as broken off at 
a, as will be explained further along, and 
from its node another lateral has grown. 
In autumn the green wood of the vine has 
ripened and become brown, the leaves having 
performed their functions spontaneously drop 
from the node, the tendril dries up, but does not 
fall off of itself, and the node at this time ap¬ 
pears as in figure 4, which we borrow from 
Mohr. A is the scar left by the fallen leaf; B,. 
the bud; (7, the lateral, and B, the tendril, or 
the foot-stalk of a fruit cluster,as the case may be. 
In treating of the vine we have thus far em¬ 
ployed the terms branch, stem, and shoot, in 
their common acceptation, for in speaking of 
plants in general most of us are in the habit 
of using them to mean much the same thing. 
Writers on the vine find it necessary to 
give them a definite meaning. The growth 
which prolongs during the summer, while it is 
still green is called a shoot. When the wood of a 
shoot has ripened, it becomes a cane, and when 
a cane has itself borne shoots which have ripen¬ 
ed into other canes, it is then a part of the stem. 
The shoots all start from buds that have 
been prepared the year before ; in figure 4, the 
bud B will this spring produce a shoot. This 
will elongate indefinitely, but always consist of 
the succession of nodes, with their appendages 
of leaves, tendrils, etc., already described. On 
a vigorous shoot, the lower nodes, instead of 
producing tendrils, will bear clusters of grapes, 
and this is the only place where fruit is borne— 
on the shoot, the growth of the present year. 
When the leaves have fallen and the fruit is 
gathered, what was the shoot is then a cane, 
which can no longer bear clusters directly from 
its ripened wood. It is furnished with buds, 
which will next jmar produce shoots, and these 
will bear fruit. The cane has a light colored, 
smooth bark, but after it has passed two seasons, 
one as a shoot and the other as a cane, it be¬ 
comes a part of the stem, a name which it retains 
as long as it remains a part of the vine. It has 
a dark bark, the outer layers of which become 
loose and spontaneously separate. 
It will be seen that the bud is a most import¬ 
ant appendage to the vine. Situated at the 
node, just at the base of a leaf, it is so placed 
that in its young and tender state it is protected 
from accident, and it is also where it can be 
properly nourished by its parent leaf, so to speak. 
Much of the energy of the vine is directed 
to perfecting the bud, which has another year 
so important a part to play, for it is to become 
the shoot which is to bear the foliage, the fruit, 
and in fact to be nearly all that we look for in 
the vine. A bud, then, may be properly regarded 
as an undeveloped shoot; its leaves, and even 
its fruit are prepared beforehand, and the fruit¬ 
fulness of the vine will depend upon the oppor¬ 
tunities that the bud has had for maturing prop¬ 
erly. The vine has not, like the pear, peach, 
etc., fruit buds and leaf buds, but both leaves 
and fruit come from the. same bud. 
All the different systems of pruning and train¬ 
ing are founded upon the fact that fruit is always 
produced upon a shoot, or new growth, and 
they have for their object the perfection of the 
buds during the season of growth, and the re¬ 
moval of so much of the ripened wood as shall 
leave a sufficient number of buds to produce as 
much fruit as is consistent with the general and 
continued welfare of the vine. The illustrations 
of pruning and training present us with very 
different looking vines, but they are easily com¬ 
prehended by any one who understands the 
manner of growth of the vine, and no system 
can be followed long without this knowledge. 
-- --«»»—-—*-»■- 
Starting Plants in the House. 
Many who have no hot-beds are able to have 
a few early plants of tomatoes, etc., by starting 
them in the house. A sunny window in the 
kitchen is the best place, as the atmosphere is 
usually less dry than that of the other rooms. 
We have before recommended this plan, and 
now allude to it for the purpose of calling at¬ 
tention to a box which will allow the plants to 
