Southern cultivator. (Augusta, Ga.) 1843-188?, April 01, 1867, Page 117, Image 33

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live than corn, in this region. Grapes readily sell here at $1 to f 1 25 per bushel, and the purchasers get two and a half to three gallons of juice per bushel, to which add two pounds of sugar per gallon, and we have the cost of mate, rial for one gallon of wine. This is now worth $2 to $3 or more, per gallon, wholesale. It is proper to state that the physiological law' applies to this as to all perennial fruit plants; that is, an extraordinary crop one year is certainly followed by an inferior one ; nevertheless, we have never known a total failure with this as with other fruit harvests. For the method of making wine, see Patent Office Re port 1859, and an article in “ Field and Fireside” from tho pen of one of our vineyardists, Mr. A. J. Butner. ExDerience alone, can give practical skill, and herein will lie the relative profits of those engaging in the business. C. G. WYCHE, M. D. Whitesville , N. C., Feb. 18G7. — »♦»> PEACHES IN TEXAS. Editors Southern Cultivator :—I see in this month’s number of your paper, a communication from A. 8., Culhoun co., Texas, about peaches. He seems to think seedling trees are more likely to escape spring frosts than grafted sorts. Now, I find the reverse is always the case in my orchard. Seedlings come in bloom full two w r eeks earlier than grafted trees, and are not by any means as sure bearers, nor do they produce fruit at all like the pa rent. I have grown both cling and free from the seed of cling varieties, and I have not yet grow n any that I would think worthy of place in any good collection. But with worked trees, there is no doubt about their fruiting or paying well for the cost of cultivation. I find the peach does best in deep sandy soil, with plenty of well-rotted cow-pen manure, and thorough cultivation. I have tried about thirty varieties, and find none to produce such crops of beautiful, excellent fruit as the Congress Cling. With me it is very profitable. The fruit is splendid, and as a market peach, No. 1. I have sent some fruit 8 days tra el, and it wa3 in first rate order after the trip. I find no trouble in growing them from cuttings, planted in very sandy soil, and they are readily propagated by grafting on pieces of roots of any common peach. I find tongue grafting succeeds best. In this country we think the peach one of our safest crops. For the last six years, I have had more trouble thinning the fruit than saving from frost. I think A. B. can very easily have peaches° from the first of June to frost. lam determined that I will. Moreover, I am doing all I can to get people to plant good kinds. At present, the mode of fruit culture is Negroes plant , Hogs cultivate, and Horses and Oxen prune. Yours, very respectfully, W. W. Brenham, Texas, Feb. 9, 1867. A pretty universal mode of cultivation in other places than Texas. You might have added, negroes gatherwilso, if the tree happen to make a crop. A. B.’s location, if we are not mistaken, is near the gulf, and farther South than yours, which is considerably inland. This, doubtless, makes it more difficult to man age the peach than you find it. There are few localities we should judge, in wdiich the peach does as finely as in yours. Here we may calculate on frost cutting off the fruit at least three years in five, unless the trees are pro tected by smoke, or the orchard is on a hill-top.— Ed. So. Cult. SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. NOTES ON CiRAPE CILTIUE. No. IV. A arietjes. —The nature of the Clinton is not under stood by the mass of the people at the North ; yet its pop ularity is yearly increasing. It is eatable about the time the old Isabella F ripe; but it is not luscious in the South A\ est until it is touched by the autumn frosts; it become* black and looks ripe here six weeks or two months beforo it is ripe ; hence "many in pulling it at that period, taste the aeidit)/ and decry it as a “ sour thine.” It may not be known that the Clinton makes most ex cellent Jellies ; it is also the hardiest grape in cultivation. I cover all my grape vines in winter, with two or threo inches of earth, except the Clinton, Franklin, Logan and vines of that class, and find that in winters when they w'ould not he killed, that it is a great benefit to them; but protection in winter has no effect upon the hardy Clinton ; it appears to defy the frost of our most severe winters, which are certainly severe enough. The Concord , like the Clinton, Taylor, &c., improves by being removed to the South West, and doubtless when transferred to the South would be better still. It is not the best grape, but it is a fruit for “ the million,” ami with the exception of the Clinton, will stand more rough usage or neglect than any other cultivated grape. It ripens ear ly, and is as enormous a bearer as the Clinton, yet the lat ter has some advantages over the former. The Concord is not as good a wine grape, nor will it keep fresh and improve by age like the Clinton. The Southern Herbemont , is a most excellent grape here. A beautiful and rampant grower, but if not covered with soil in winter, kills to the surface of the ground. r l he comparatively new hybrids of E. S. Rogers, Esq., of Salem, Mass., are among the most promising new grapes for the mass. I speak only of numbers 2,3, 4, 15 and 19. It will not do to plant them 4 by G, as our German friends do with the Catawba. I would not even in Vineyards, plant them less than 8 by 12 or 10 by 15 feet apart. They are hardy and immensely prolific. It is said by some that overbearing has no effect upon them, while almost every other variety is injured by excessive crops. The vines are prolific growers ; the bunches as large as the Black Ham burg, and are destined to become popular market grapes, and ought to be tried in every region of country where the grape is planted. The Taylor , is another grape that should be tested in the South. It is a luscious little grape, but in the North does not produce as heavy crops as is desired, owing to a defect in the flowering. In some places it has been tried, and produced heavy crops. If, as Mr. duller, in his book says, the stamens of its flowers are deformed generally, anu do not afford enough of pollen to fertilize the stigma, it with all other varieties of the same nature should be planted with varieties that have abundant pollen which blossoms at the same time with the Taylor. It may be that our Eastern and Northern friends do not understand the nature of the Taylor. If we want to pro duce fruit, we must plant it in ground that is not too rich as it will run to wood if fed highly, and it must not be dwarfed like many other varieties; if pruned much it will not produce fruit. It is a very rampant grower, and excel lent for arbors. The Diana is another variety that improves with us, in 117