166 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
it ordinarily attains in the same period. It was soft and 
compressible, as though it were puffed up with air, being 
filled with an elastic spongy substance of a whitish color. 
In some of these inflated plums no vestige of a kernel re¬ 
mained; in others, a little soft, and empty shell was 
found. After growing from one-half to more than three 
quarters of an inch in diameter, the fruit dropped, and 
by the middle of June, no more of it was to be seen on 
the trees.” 
Dr. Harris has determined the cause of this premature 
swelling of the fruit to be the attack of a small insect, a 
kind of thrips, which he supposes attacks the fruit while 
in blossom, destroys the pollen, and prevents the im¬ 
pregnation of the fruit. Dr. H. remarks, that as yet the 
affection has been confined to a limited number of trees, 
but that should the insect multiply and spread to other 
trees, they would prove most destructive to the plum tree 
fruit. The farmer should therefore watch for their first 
appearance, and endeavor to devise some method of kill¬ 
ing them while the trees are in blossom, and the fruit 
forming. 
Most of our readers in the Atlantic states, who have 
had the pleasure of gathering that first fruit of the sea¬ 
son, the Honeysuckle apple, have witnessed the effect of 
this insect, the Thrips, in the production of those enor¬ 
mous puffy masses called leather breeches. We have never 
seen them on any variety of the plum, with the excep¬ 
tion of the wild, sweet red plum, once so common in all 
the west. When we first moved to Western New-York, 
we had a large number of the wild plum trees planted out; 
but the fruit was of so little value, owing to the attacks 
of this or a similar insect, which caused it to swell in 
precisely the manner described by Dr. Harris, that at the 
earliest opportunity, we replaced them by the cultivated 
kinds, and on these we have never seen a single instance 
of this defective fruit. 
CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 
We answer the inquiry of J. Hereert, Esq. of New 
Jersey, by complying with the request of another cor¬ 
respondent, (U. C.) to publish the annexed article on the 
culture of the Native and Foreign Grape, from the Or- 
chardisPs Companion, to which it was communicated by 
Dr. Underhill, of New-York: 
“ I have been extensively engaged for more than ten 
years, in the cultivation of some of our native grapes, 
particularly the Isabella and Catawba. These two kinds 
I consider preferable for vineyard cultivation for the use 
of the table, to any others with which I am acquainted. 
In 1828-9, I planted about four acres of the choicest 
French vines, selected by Andre Parmentier, from vine¬ 
yards in France, among which were the White Chasse- 
las of Fontainbleau, Burgundy, Frontignac, Imperial 
Tokay, &c. After three years cultivation, they produced 
but a small crop of fruit. Although cultivated in the best 
manner as vineyard grapes, they soon showed symptoms 
of decay, and the fruit was not as sweet or as fine flavor¬ 
ed as either the Isabella or Catawba. Several gentlemen 
laid out vineyards of the above kinds in the vicinity of 
New-York, about the same time I planted mine, which, 
after a large outlay of money and loss of time, proved to 
be worthless. 
“ In 1832, I cleared my vineyards of all the foreign 
vines they contained, considering them to be an incum¬ 
brance. I regard the question respecting the raising of 
foreign grapes in open field cultivation, in this country, 
as settled; that they will do very well under glass, I 
have not a doubt: indeed, you furnish the evidence of 
this fact, to your numerous readers, in the third number 
of that splendid work, the “ Orchardist’s Companion.” 
“Having abandoned the foreign vines, and wishing 
them better success in the hands of those who may be so 
unfortunate as to plant them in open vineyards, I turned 
my attention to those which are indigenous to the United 
States. I commenced replanting my vineyards with the 
Isabella in 1832, and with the Catawba in ’35, and have 
been increasing them to the present time. I have now 
about twenty acres of these grapes, principally the form¬ 
er, under the most successful cultivation, and shall con¬ 
tinue to increase the number of vines, till all my vacant 
ground is occupied. I find the native grapes, like other 
classes of plants, and the different species of our domestic 
animals, susceptible of vast improvement by cultivation. 
The Isabella and Catawba, which were growing in the 
wild state about forty years since, have improved exceed¬ 
ingly, and are capable of still further improvement by 
high culture. 
“ The quality of my fruit has changed very much with¬ 
in a few years; the clusters and berries are much larger 
and sweeter, the skin thinner, and the pulp has nearly 
disappeared. But I do not wish to be understood as con¬ 
veying the idea that others, having a suitable situation, 
and good vines, with properly directed efforts in plant¬ 
ing, pruning, &c., cannot succeed in raising as fine fruit 
as grows upon “ Croton Point.” 
“ The improvement in these, and others of our native 
grapes, will be found to be progressive, and in a few 
years we shall have no cause to regret the impossibility 
of transferring to our soil, the delicate vines of Europe, 
rendered feeble by centuries of close pruning. The na¬ 
tive vigor of the Isabella and Catawba is so much greater 
than that of most of the vines cultivated in the vineyards 
of Europe, that we shall be able to raise a greater quan¬ 
tity per acre, than they can possibly obtain. 
“ The cultivation of the native grapes for the manufac¬ 
ture of wine, has received some share of public attention. 
On this subject I cannot speak from personal experience. 
If we are to credit the statements of many persons of in¬ 
telligence, there cannot be a doubt that excellent wine 
can be made from many of our native grapes. Conside¬ 
rable quantities are now made in the Carolinas, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, Ohio anti Indiana. The progress of the tempe¬ 
rance reformation over this country, would seem to have 
removed the apparent necessity of turning our farms into 
wine vineyards to furnish the juice of the grape as a sub¬ 
stitute for ardent spirits. But it is certain that a much 
greater quantity of pure, unadulterated wine, will be re¬ 
quired for medicinal purposes, and for the Church, than 
we shall be able to supply by the multiplication of vine¬ 
yards for many years to come. The Isabella is said to 
make a light sweet wine, and also champaigne; the Ca¬ 
tawba, on the contrary, a very strong, excellent wine, 
not inferior to Madeira. This is the opinion of a num¬ 
ber of gentlemen who have made the latter, and taken 
much pains to test its qualities. The most prominent 
object I have had in view, in my efforts to promote the 
more extensive cultivation of the grape in this country, 
has been the introduction of a healthy and delicious arti¬ 
cle for the use of the table. Having been fortunate in 
the selection of such native vines, as not only possess 
these qualities, but are well calculated to make excel¬ 
lent wines, I give them a decided preference. If how¬ 
ever, their consumption, as an article of food and luxury, 
should increase in our principal cities, in any thing like 
the ratio they have for the last five years, it will be a 
long time before our markets are fully supplied.” 
LIST OF FRUITS, for a Small Garden. 
English writers on the culture of fruit, find no diffi¬ 
culty in making out lists of the finest kinds adapted alike 
to different portions of their country. The small extent 
of their territory and consequent similarity of climate, 
and the experience of centuries in determining the adap¬ 
tation of fruits to that climate, give them a great advan¬ 
tage over the horticulturists of this country. Here, ge¬ 
neral attention is hardly yet directed to the acquisition 
of the finest; great difficulties exist in procuring genuine 
varieties; and when these are obtained, it becomes a 
matter of extreme doubt whether they may be suited to 
the particular region intended for them in a country of 
such extent, the climate of whose extreme northern and 
southern points, is as dissimilar as that of Norway and 
Morocco. 
Very few European fruits are ever found of much value 
when introduced here. All our apples ranked as deci¬ 
dedly first rate, with the exception of two or three, are 
of American origin. A few foreign pears are indeed ex¬ 
cellent; but such is the variable character of some, that 
the distance of a few hundred miles, in the same latitude, 
seems wholly to change their qualities. The Virgalieu, 
for instance, in the vicinity of Boston, is considered as 
perfectly worthless, and as having “ run out ” from old 
age; while in "W estern New-York it is uniformly healthy, 
vigorous, productive, and only inferior in delicious qua¬ 
lities to the far-famed Seekel. On the other hand, pears 
cultivated at Salem, and pronounced there by the highest 
American authority, Robert Manning, as decidedly ex¬ 
cellent, are found to attain scarcely the character of se¬ 
cond rate in quality, when introduced here. 
The cherry and plum do not appear liable to such a 
degree of change, and the same varieties are probably 
adapted in most cases to the chief of the northern and 
middle states. And although there are some exceptions, 
a considerable number of our best apples preserve their 
fine qualities through most of the New England and mid¬ 
dle states. With all our disadvantages, if those fruits we 
already have, were only extensively known and cultiva¬ 
ted, and proper attention given to the best which the 
country affords, a revolution of no trifling character 
would be the result. 
To give a well chosen list of fruits, would require a 
general and extensive collection, with years of compari¬ 
son and trial. But imperfect as the following may be, it 
may assist many in improving what they already have. 
Every variety has been proved to be excellent, and suit¬ 
ed to Western New-York, and will doubtless succeed in 
climates similar in character. 
The apples may be for an orchard either large or small; 
the number of trees of the different varieties, in either 
case, will be in a great measure determined by the uses 
intended, whether for market, for domestic table use, or 
for feeding farm stock. It may be merely remarked that 
if for the latter, a few trees of our finest early fruits, will 
be found excellent for domestic animals during summer 
and autumn, and they will not be less cheap for being 
rich in quality. 
The times of ripening are according to the order in the 
lists. 
Apples. 
Yellow Harvest, 
Bough, 
American Red Juneating, 
(of Manning,) 
Sine Qua Non, 
Buffington’s Early, 
Tool's Rareripe, 
Strawberry, 
Fall Orange, 
Gravenstein, 
Rambo, 
Fall Pippin, 
Bellflower, 
Peck’s Pleasant, 
Esopus Spitzenburg, 
Jonathan, 
Rhode Island Greenin 
Swaar, 
Tallman Sweeting, 
Roxbury Russet, 
Northern Spy. 
Amire Joannet, 
Madeleine, 
Skinless, 
Julienne, 
Stevens’ Genesee, 
Pears. 
Summer Bonchretien, 
Seekel, 
Virgalieu, 
Beurre Diel. 
Early Ann, 
Sweetwater, 
Tillotson, 
Red Rareripe, 
Early York, 
White Imperial, 
Yellow Alberge, 
White Primordian, 
Orleans, 
Yellow Gage, 
Green Gage, 
Washington, 
Peaches. 
Noblesse, 
Malacatoon, 
Seabolt’s, 
Lemon Cling, 
Old Newington Cling, 
Late York, 
Heath Cling. 
Plums. 
Imperial Gage, 
Huling’s Superb, 
Coe’s Golden Drop, 
Blue Imperatrice. 
May Bigareau, 
Black Tartarian, 
White Tartarian, 
May duke, 
China Heart, 
Cherries. 
Elton, 
Elkhorn, 
Yellow Spanish, 
Transparent Guigne, 
Carnation. 
Apricots. 
Breda, | Peach, 
Musch. 
All these, except the apples, may stand in a fruit gar¬ 
den occupying but quarter of an acre. Where the ground 
is of greater extent, two or more trees of each sort may 
be planted. 
The apples will afford a succession of ripe fruit from 
harvest until harvest again; the peaches, from soon after 
harvest till winter; the pears, from a week before wheat 
harvest till mid-winter; the plums, from the same till 
late frosts; the apricots, for one month at mid-summer; 
and the cherries from the early part till the middle of 
summer. 
Some celebrated fruits are omitted; as the Summer 
Queen, Newtown pippin and Vandevere apples, which 
are much subject to mildew on the fruit in Western New- 
York; the Yellow Egg plum, its place being supplied by 
the Imperial gage; and some others. 
Some fruits of secondary quality, may be profitable for 
farm stock, from their great productiveness; as for in¬ 
stance, the Maiden’s blush apple, ripening in autumn, and 
the Black Gilliflower, an apple excellent for keeping in 
winter. J. J. Thomas. 
Macedon, N. Y. 9th mo. 1842. 
PLANTING FRUIT GARDENS. 
An additional recommendation of the mode of plant¬ 
ing trees m rows, as described in the last number of the 
Cultivator, which was omitted by mistake, is the facility 
with which the ground may be kept cultivated. Where 
it is not convenient to plant small hoed crops with the 
trees, a plow may be passed on each side of the row, 
using a one-horse plow for the part nearest the trees. 
In this way a strip of land on each side, several feet 
wide, may be kept clean and mellow at a very small ex¬ 
pense. To those who have habitually neglected the cul¬ 
tivation of their fruit trees, the change in two or three 
years will be astonishing. A single fact to the point: 
A friend who has a very large peach orchard, sowed it 
this year with peas, which is indeed far better than sow¬ 
ing with wheat or oats, or leaving in grass; on two sides, 
which had no boundary fence, was a thinly planted crop 
of corn, which was several times plowed and hoed. The 
effect of this treatment was, the two rows of peach trees, 
one-half of whose roots were covered with the cultivated 
corn crop, were so much greener and thriftier than the 
remaining trees whose roots were wholly covered by the 
uncultivated crop of peas, that the difference could be ea¬ 
sily perceived at the distance of half a mile. The pro¬ 
bability is, that many fruit gardens and orchards, whose 
annual product is worth a hundred dollars, might, by an 
annual outlay of two dollars in judicious cultivation, be 
made to double at least the yearly crop, and yield two 
hundred dollars worth of fruit. J. J. Thomas. 
TO DESTROY BUGS ON VINES, &c. 
Messrs. Editors— Your correspondent “H. W. S. 
C.” in the last August Cultivator, is desirous of informa¬ 
tion regarding the rose bug on his grape vines. It would 
have been better had he given a short description of the 
insect. In a good many treatises on the cultivation of 
the vine, which I have had an opportunity of perusing, 
various insects are mentioned as preying occasionally on 
it, but the rose bug is not stated as one of them. I have 
many rose bushes, but have never found any insect on 
them but the green fly; so that I am not acquainted with 
the rose bug. 
In the year 1827, or 1828, my vines were attacked by 
an insect, which I was satisfied at the time was what is 
mentioned in books under the name of The Turtle Bug; 
being a clumsy, flat shaped beetle, of a brown or yellow¬ 
ish color, a few of them as broad as a six cent piece, but 
the great mass of them not larger than the striped bug 
that infests the melon and cucumber plants. They ap¬ 
peared on the bushes in immense numbers; and on strik¬ 
ing the branches smartly with a stick, dropped off by 
hundreds, and remained on the ground as if dead. I 
happened to have at the* time three or four hens kept in 
the garden in small coops; each coop large enough to 
contain only one hen with her brood of small chickens; 
the slats of the coop close enough to confine the hen, but 
wide enough apart to admit ingress and egress to the 
chickens, and to allow the hen to put out her head and 
neck to take food and water. This contrivance I had 
previously observed in the garden of Mr. Earl Stimson, 
of Galway, a gentleman well and extensively known as 
