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for every dollar of the prime cost of the farm.
Many other instances from the use of guano
equally striking hare come under my immediate
observation among my neighbors and friends,
and I can vouch for their entire accuracy. It
has been frequently objected to the use of guano
that it is not permanent. It would be unreas
onable to expect grjat permanent improvement
from a manure so active, and which yielded so
large a profit on the first crop ; yet, I have seen
some striking evidence of its permanency in
in heavy crops of clover succeeding wheat, and
in the increase of a crop of wheat on a second
application. As an instance, I may mention that
two years ago I sowed upon a single detached
acre of ‘ forest land ’ one bushel of wheat and
dressed it with a barrel of African guano, cost
ing $4, and the yield was 17 bushels. Last fall
the same land, after remaining one year in clo
ver, was again sown with one bushel of wheat,
and dressed with 140 pounds of Peruvian guano,
costing $3, and the product was 22 bushels;
yet I would advise no one to rely upon guano
exclusively. Its analysis shows that it contains
salts of ammonia, alkaline phosphates, and the
other mineral elements necessary to produce the
grain of wheat, but is deficient in most of the
elements of the straw and roots of the plants.”
If the last remarks were true, the duugof sea
birds and of common domestic fowls would be
less valuable than experience proves it to be.
Mr. E. F. Teschemacher, of Boston, gives the
following as the result of an analysis of Peruvian
guano made by him: “One hundred parts con
sist of 9 parts of ammonia, combined with phos
phoric, carbonic, uric, and organic acids; form
ing, of
Ammoniacal salts -40
Animal organic matter ----6)
Sulphate & muriate of potash & soda - 11)
Phosphate of lime and magnesia - - 29)
Sand -1
Water 11)
100”
While there is but one per cent, of sand or
silica, and that insoluble, there is 11$ per cent,
of salts of potash and soda, being about the same
found in wheat straw.
No fertilizers differ more in value and chemi
cal composition than those imported and sold
under the name of guano. We can no more
judge from the analysis of practical effects of one
cargo of this manure what the next will be
worth, than from the composition of one man’s
soil in one locality what is the composition and
what the value of a different soil in a distant lo
cality. The true way to estimate the value of
the excretions of any animal is to learn the na
ture and constituents of the food on which it
subsists. The mule that lives on sedge, thistles,
and bushes will yield manure vastly inferior to
that of one fed on corn and oats. When a bird
consumes 100 parts of dry organized fish, flesh,
insects, or the seeds of plants, 80 parts, more or
less, escape from its capacious lungs in the shape
of carbonic acid and vapor; and 20 by the bow
els, which constitute guano. It is because the
food of birds is richer m the least abundant ele
ments of plants, and their systems burn out
nearly all the carbon and hydrogen in their ali
ment before it leaves the organs of nutrition
and respiration, that the dung of this class of
animals is so valuable. Every farmer knows
that if 100 pounds of oats were rotted, they
would form valuable manure: but how would
the mass compare with 100 pounds of guano,
suppose fowls had catten oats enough to form 100
pounds of dry excrement ? The composition of
oats, according to Boussingault, is as follows :
Carbon - -- -- -- - 50.38
Hydrogen ------- 6.32
Oxygen - -•--••- 37.14
Nitrogen 2.24
Ash 3.98
100.00
It will bo seen that nitrogen and ash or incom
bustible matter from only 5.22 per cent, of oats
and that 94.78 parts in 100 aro carbon and the
elements of water, carbon forming a fraction
over half the weight of this grain. Now, the
best guano contains no more carbon than it does
of nitrogen, and often not so much ; but let us
assume that the oxygen and hydrogen in oats
aro not estimated as fertilizers at all, and that
guano made from the seeds of this plant contains
as much carbon as the ash and nitrogen combin
ed; then it is obvious that 100 pounds of oats
will form but 10.44 of this most concentrated
fertilizer; so that 1,000 pounds of oats would
yield only 104.4 lbs. of guano. If a soil did not
lack available carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen,
but ammouia and the earthy elements of oats
who can say, in view of the chemical composi
tion of this grain, that 105 pounds of the right
ingredients might not produce 1,000 of oats ?
To comprehend the philosophy of improving
land, the farmer must have a clear perception of
the existence and condition of the two tons of
matter which forms that quantity of clover, hay
and roots, when 100 pounds of gypsum are ap
plied to an acre that needs sulphur, and perhaps
available lime. When a mixture of wood ashes,
burnt bones, and common salt adds many thou
sand pounds to a crop of corn, where does all
the carbon come from contained in the stalks,
leaves, roots, cobs, and seeds of this luxuriant
plant? Not a pound of carbon was applied in
the fertilizers. In burning over prairies at the
West, a thousand pounds or more of carbon from
each acre are annually discharged into the at
mosphere for centuries, while not an ounce is
applied in manure of any kind. Instead of im
pairing the soil and robbing it of mould or car
bonaceous matter, these prairies aro remarkable
for the dark color and richness of the earth. In
this case, not only carbon and the elements of
water are consumed in the annual burning of
all vegetation, but whatever of nitrogen is con
tained in wild gras3 and other plants is also
thrown into the air. Nothing but the ash re
mains to keep up the virgin fertility, of the land,
and that is sufficient for the purpose.
If these prairies had been tilled as well as
cropped, by burning their products there is no
question that the exhaustion of the soil would
ensue. Tillage alone, by increasing the solubil
ity and solution of all the elements of plants,
both organic and inorganic, hastens their remov
al from ploughed land. There is vastly too much
land under the plough in the United States for
the crops harvested. The proportion of the ele
ments of crops which leave the soil without en
tering at all the roots of plants is much greater
than is generally believed. No intelligent per
son can long study the combustible and incom
bustible matter that rain-water dissolves out of
an arated or frequently stirred oil, in the course
of the six warmest mouths of the year, and not
be convinced of the truth of the above remark.
The leaching and washing of tilled lond are to be
avoided by all practicable means, if one seeks to
increase its productiveness from year to year.
When manure enough to produco 17 bnshels of
wheat on poor, sandy land can be put into a
“barrel,” and sold readily for “four dollars,”
farmers should contrast this operatiod with that
of hauling and spreading tons of manure on an
acre, which are not worth a dollar a ton. Facts
XKK SOTCKEM J?X£X.S ASH XXREBXDE.
like these are full of significance. We have long
contended, and religiously believe, that the cul
tivators of American soil perform more unneces
sary work every year to obtain their crops than
the aggregate labor of all other classes combin
ed. This prodigious loss of national industry
and capital can never be prevented until the
laws of nature that govern the fruitfulness of
the earth and the rewards of farm labor, are
studied, understood and obeyed. The unwilling
ness of the people, of State legislatures, and of
Congress, to foster the study of good husbandry,
is the greatest marvel of the age. Why the
dnng of sea-birds is worth forty dollars a ton,
and that of horses only the fortieth part of that
sum, is a problem in farm economy which every
schoolboy fifteen years of age should be able to
solve at once. According to the analysis of the
recent dung of sea-eagle, made by Coindet, it
contains uric acid and ammonia equal to 45 per
cent, of that valuable fertilizer; while a horse,
eating rations composed of two-thirds timothy
and one-third oats or com, would void manure
that had less than one per cent, of ammonia.
In all the higher animals, most of the nitrogen,
in their food escapes by the kidneys, and not by
the bowels. One hundred pounds of the dis
solved salts contained in the unne of a horse or
other domestic animal, dry, would be worth
many times that amount of their dung. It is
not the water nor the carbon in the liquid excre
tions of a cow that makes them worth $lO a
year in Belgium for the improvement of land.
The quantity of phosphates of potash, lime,
and magnesia, of ammonia, chlorine, and other
earthy constituents of crops, available to the
farmer in his sod is usually quite small. If this
were not so, how could the application of only
two hundred pounds of these salts in guano to
a thousand tons of earth in an acre, add fourfold
to its productiveness ? Estimating the soil as
available to the roots of com, wheat, clover, and
other crops, to the depth of ten inches only, and
it weighs two million pounds per acre. If wo
divido this sura by one hundred, (an amount of
guano that often produces a great increase in a
crop of corn,) it gives only one part in twenty
thousand. The essential elements of crops con
stitute so small a part of the earth in which they
grow, that it is not altogether improbable the
the time may come when they will be carefully
extracted and stored up for safe-keeping in ves
sels hermetically sealed, or as involatile salts.
A fertilizer that will produce three pounds of
whaat or six of corn for one on poor land, is
as worthy of a granary as the grain itself. Why
not ? When two hundred pounds of guano have
produced nine hundred of wheat, can the wheat
be so managed, after its consumption in bread,
as to form two hundred pounds of manure equal
in ammonia and phosphoric acid to the original
guano ? Probably not; but, taken as a whole,
the night soil may be quite as valuable as the
guano. Researches in the preparation of night
soil, and its economical value, are greatly need
ed in this country. Our cities and villages in
crease so rapidly in population, and draw so
constantly from the soil its most precious consti
tuents of human food and clothing, that unless
we adopt the principle of restoring as much pot
ash, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, and ammonia,
as we take from it in breadstuffs, vegetables,
cotton, tobacco, and provisions, it must become
at no distant day too sterile for profitable culti
vation. It is not necessary to rotnm to the soil
as many pounds of matter as it yields in crops;
but there are few so rich in potash, chlorine,
sulphur, and phosphorus, as to render it safe
farming to take more of these substances in
plants of any kind than is restored to the earth.
Soils often contain not over one part of phospho
rus in an available condition in five or ten thou
sand ; and to extract this mineral (without which
not the first blade of grass, seed of grain* boll of
cotton, leaf of tobacco, or crop of any kind, can
be formed) and not make adequato restitution,
is the extreme of folly. Pure phosphorus is
worth from four to five thousand dollars a ton.
This fact indicates the scarcity of the article
even in the richest virgin earths; for, like potash,
it all comes from the soil. Whoever will exam
ine the analysis of the ash of cotton seed, or le
guminous plants, will see that phosphoric acid
and potash are large and indispensable elements.
Except in cotton seed the fertilizers in most
seeds are habitually wasted, or sent abroad to
market. This practice of throwing away in
cities the most valuable food of plants, and then
partially making up the loss by purchasing im
ported manure at S6O a ton, is discreditable to
our national good sense and agricultural skill.
If our crops need the elements of bones, ammo
nia, and potash, why waste these things by the
thousand tons in cities and villages? If one
fourth of the weight sent to market in human
food and raiment were returned to the country
and the soil, (being the least abundant elements
in the plants extracted from the land,) it would
maintain forever, under a good system of farm
economy, the highest fruitfulness of the earth.
And who will say that the same vessels, rail
ways, canals, and wagons, which convey four
thousaud pounds of breadstuffs and provisions
to near or distant markets, cannot take back to
the fields whence these products were drawn
one thousand pounds of the raw material for
making similar organic substances? The 75
per cent, to be left in cities is essentially the
carbonic acid and vapor thrown out of human
lungs in ceaseless respiration night and day,
which carbon and vapor came from the nutrient
atoms in the blood-vessels and from the food
taken daily into the system.
All fermentation and decay in vegetable and
animal substances in town and country discharge
carbon and the elements of water into the atmos
phere —mould being the residuum of such sub
stances, and containing less than 25 per cent of
the original organized matter. It is on this ac
count that a rich mould formed from clover
is more valuable than the clover which
rotted to produce it; for four hundred pounds of
the dry plants will yield only one hundred of
dry mould. In the same way, a ton of dry for
est leaves is reduced to five hundred of rich
mould wben properly rotted and dried. Hence,
five hundred pounds of good mould will suffice to
grow at least a ton of cultivated plants, if it be
not wasted by a cultivator who refuses to study
the soil which he ploughs and hoes.
(to be continued.)
-»■ >
Mutton. —We mean to repeat a thousand
times, or at least till what we say has some ef
fect upon our countrymen, that a pound of lean,
tender, juicy mutton can be produced for half
the cost of the same quantity of fat pork; that
it is infinitely healthier food, especially in the
summer season, and those who eat it become
more muscular, and can do more work with
greater ease to themselves than those who eat
fat pork. We know nothing more delicious than
smoked mutton-hams, of the South Down breeds
of sheep. Venison itself is not superior.—
[American Agriculturalist.
Johnny Cake.— Cne pint sweet milk; 1 tea
spoon soda in the milk ; 3 tablespoons sugar; 3
do. flour ; 1 do. butter; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 eggs;
2 teaspoons cream tarter in the flour. Indian
meal to make it about as thick as a pound cake.
HORTICULTURAL.
niS. N. WHITE, Editor.
SATURDAY, DEC. 3, 1859.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
We have received from R. Buist, Philadelphia,
Pa., catalogues of Roses, Evergreens, Ac.; also
Buist’s Almanac for 1860. The latter is excellent,
still better than last year. Selections from it
will appear in our columns.
A Catalogue of Jasper Spring Nursery. E-
Parsons & Son, Savannah, Ga.,1860. Quite an
extensive collection and a favorable point for
propogating many excellent native trees which
are quite difficult to obtain, such as the Live
Oak, Flex Cassina,&c. Our catalogue having
been mislaid, will the proprietors send us an
other?
W. B. J.—Those acorns came duly. Thanks.
—We shall cheerfully comply with your re
quest.
-
THE ECBE
(CONTINUED.)
Soil. —The most suitable soil for the rose, is
a strong, rich loam, dug at least eighteen inches
deep. It should be well drained and well ma
nured with thoroughly rotted leaf mould or old
cow or stable manure. Manure from a well lit
tered yard, allowed to remain six months in the
compost heap, is just what they prefer. If the
soil is light, holes must be dug and heavy loam
and compost forked in. The whole secret of
growing the finest roses is, depth and richness
of well drained and well pulverized soil. Lay
it down as an axiom that no soil can be made
too rich for roses. Do not, however, uso fresh
manures. These are injurious to most flowering
plants. In poor soils, the most excellent kinds of
double roses, often come out single, semi-double,
or imperfect, and in such soils, many excellent
roses have been condemned by purchasers,
when the fault was solely in their own mode
of culture, or rather the want of proper culture,
which starved them into a false character. At
the first bloom, after transplanting, a rose sel
dom does as well and with roses that bloom but
once; a year is thus lost, while the plant is be
coming established. But in good soils the ever
blooming kinds, in favorable seasons, soon take
root, and show their true character, later in the
summer, in all its perfections. Indeed the au
tumnal bloom of Remontants, Teas, Bourbons,
Ac., is generally much finer on plants that were
removed the preceding November or December,
than on those that have remained in place. The
rose, more than any other ornamental shrub, re
quires constant culture and attention, to keep it
in perfection, except in the best rose soils. And
it will, more than any other flowering plant, re
ward you for the care it requires. They should
all be taken up, their roots trimmed, and their
tops shortened and thinned evory third year.—
When taken up, their roots will be found naked,
having lost most of their fibres; but naked as
they are, if thus trimmed and shortened in, and
if when they are reset, plenty of well rotted ma
nure and ftesh soil bo placed about their roots,
the plants will become quite renovated, and
bloom as finely, and often more so than young
plants.
All standard roses, especially, require that
this triennial removal should take place. Un
less thus treated, no budded roses will long con
tinue to give fine autumnal blooms. They may
be replanted, where they were, if the soil be
changed for that in which roses have not been
recently grown and enriched with a few shovels
full of well-rotted manure. In very clayey,
cold soils, the best compost to put about their
roots would be pit sand and well-rotted dung in
equal parts ; but for most soils, the good strong
loom should be used with the manure, without
the sand. Roses that are not removed, should
receive a good dressing of such a compost welj
forked in about their roots every winter, and du
ring the summer an occasional application of
soap suds from the" weekly wash is very benefi
cial. If a third of the roses you cultivate are
annually removed, and the soil changed, these
will give you magnificent autumnal blooms,
while from those left undisturbed, the finest
blooms in the spring will be obtained.
Do not expect to obtain good roses from soils
where old roses have just been taken up, as in
such a soil they make no growth. Remove it,
and supply its place with fresh. Do not look
for good roses, either, under the shade of trees,
by whoso roots they are deprived of all the
moisture and fertility of the soil, and in whose
foliage tlifcy are deprived of air and sun
light, for in such situations they will never thrive.
They requiro and deserve the full benefit of sun
and soil from one end of the year to the other.
If you prefer the shade of trees about your
dwelling, plant them in large beds, cut in ovals
or circles on the lawn or in a rose garden, where
they will display all their beauties to far better
advantage than if intermingled with other
plants.
Roses are prapagated by seeds, cuttings, lay
ers, suckers, buds and grafts. Seeds are only
employed to obtain new varieties, and may be
be sown in autumn in a prepared bed of light
soil. Sandy soils are the most favorable for pro
pagating young plants, and heavier soils for
blooming. The young plants will make their
appearance the next spring, though some delay
coming up until the year after. As they get
the fourth leaf, they should bo transplanted into
rows a foot and a half apart, and twelve inches
distant in the row, and the everblooming ones
will show their color the same year, but they re
quire more age to show what they really will
become. Our fine roses here ripen seed abun
dantly. Isabella Grey, the deepest yellow* ever
blooming rose we have, is a Charleston seed
ling.
Cuttings are taken chiefly of the ever-groen
sorts, Bengals, Teas, Noisettes, Bourbons, and
some of the Hybrid Perpetuals. They should
be taken from young shoots of the same year
that have just produced flowers, and cut close to
the older wood. Cut the base smooth and even
ly, just below a bud, and shorten it to four or
six buds. Cut off the leaves, or all but one or
two, and plant in a bed of light sandy soil, where
shaded from the midday* sun ; give frequent
sprinklings of water, and they will root in a few
weeks. Plant either when the roses are just
over their first bloom in Spring, or still better,
put them in this month (November). Under
glass with a slignt bottom heat as in a moderate
hot bed, with the glass not too near, they almost
certainly take root.
Layers can be put down at almost any time,
but do best w hen the plants are in flower in the
spring. Take any young shoot that can be bent
to the earth, and cut off the leaves where in
in contact with the soil. Enter a sharp knife
just behind one of the buds at the base of the
leaves and cut gradually towards the extremity
of the shoot, about an inch into the middle of
the branch. You will thus have a spur about
an inch long, with a bud at its base, and from
this eye the roots w ill protrude. If you choose
a bud on the upper side of the branch, and
twist the spool a trifle, the cut will remain open
and the branch is less liable to break in bend
ing down. Peg down the shoot about three or
four-inches under the soil, cover it with rich,
light earth, and in a few months it will have
rooted. When removed, cut down the plant to
four or five eyes.
Suckers can be dug up with all the root pos
sible, at any time during the winter. Roses
thus propagated, are very likely to throw up
suckers, a habit very troublesome in a rose gar.
den. Roses with this disposition should be
budded on stocks not likely to throw out suck
ers.
Budding can be performed at anytime during
the summer when the bark will slip. The whole
process is fully described in our Gardening.—
Grafting is done early in the spring, and is not
much in use.
Roses, in general, are decidedly* to be preferred
on their own roots. Budded roses are often
grown on improper stocks, and, throwing up a
wilderness of suckers, the head is robbed of
nourishment, and at last perishes. If the suck
ers aro removed as they spring, you will get a
pretty good idea of what is meant by the cant
phraso “ Eternal vigilance." Still, new kinds
for a few seasons cannot be generally got unless
budded, as, by budding, moro plants of a rare
kind can be obtained in a year than in five or
ten by cuttings and layers. And in fact roses
budded on the right stocks and properly cared
for, do bloom more finely than on their own roots.
Those who have tried roses budded low on the
manetti stock, like those sent out by John Saul,
the eminent nurseryman of Washington City,
and will plant them, as he directs, with the bud
a little beneath the surface, will find many of
their objections to budded roses cease to have
weight. Such roses as are given to sucker, like
Persian Yellow, will bloom much more fully and
freely, and become more manageable than if on
their own roots. At the triennial removal of
budded roses, all the eyes on the stock should
be cut out, and surface wets threatening to throw
up shoots should also be removed.
[to be continued.]
CURIOSITIES OF VEGETATION.
Few circumstances excite the surprise of ob
servers more than the production of one flower
by the interior of another. Yet there is no pre
ternatural phenomenon more easily explained,
when the true nature of a flower is understood.
That curious apparatus, with its panoply of bril
liant colors, its transparency, its fragrance, and
the important special duties confided to it by
nature, is, in the eyes of science, merely a col
lection of leaves in a transformed condition, and
is itself but a branch, stunted in its growth.
The truth of this theory is proved by the fol
lowing circumstances more especially:
First That every part of the apparatus of a
flower, however unlike a leaf, will occasionally,
in the presence of disturbing influences, become
a mere leaf.
Second. That the peculiar property of forming
a bud or rudimentary branch in the axil, which
is an especial attribute of a leaf, also belongs to
the parts of which a flower consists.
Thirdly. That the floral organs stand in the
relation to each other as the ordinary leaves
upon an ordinary stunted branch, such, for in
stance, as the rosette of a Houseleek.
Fourthly. That a flower will occasionally
grow into a branch, leaving its petals at the
base.
The first is illustrated by the green-flowered
primroses, proliferous plantains and those Po
tentillas, whose flowers become in hot weather
tufts or rosettes of leaves. The second by little
branches shooskig up from among the parts of
the flower, as in the pear tree, which will occa
sionally forme two or three little pears in its
inside, each of which is traceable to the axil of
some one or other of the floral parts, and by
the common occurrence of a brood of little roses,
starting up from among the petals of a common
rose. The third may be seen by any one who
compares the rosettes of the Houseleek with a
double Camellia, a double Ranunculus, or a
Anemone. Os the fourth we have instances in
pears and apples producing a branch from their
centre, and in roses.
In all these instances the secret of floral struc
ture are revealed by accident to the eye of in
telligence. Nor have artists failed to profit by
them, as we see in the carvings and scroll-work
of the sculptor and the architect, and in pattern
for embroidery. Even the curious fact that ene
flower will grow out of another, has been seized
upon by them for the purpose of decorating the
points of separation of branches, and this in a
manner which, however conventional, is perfect
ly consistent with the true forms of nature.
In the aquariam at Syon House, it was ob
served that the beautiful water-lily, called
Nymphoea Devoniesis, has produced a flower
from the midst of which rose another lily like
itself, hanging gracefully at the end of another
stalk. When flowers thus become proliferous,
it usually happens that the whole central system
lengthens, tho metamorphosed branch merely
reverting to its original condition and lengthen
ing by the point, always represented by the cen
tre of the flower. But, in this instance, the
mode was changed, and the new flower with
its stalk proceeded directly from the axil or base
of one of the stamens. The Nymphcea there
fore belongs to the examples, included in the
second of the before-mentioned classes, and is
by far the most striking instance of the kind yet
on record. But the disturbance of the natural
condition of this water-lily was by no means
confined to the production of a second flower.
On the contrary, it extended to the innermost
organs, and forced the very stigmas to grow up
into small green leaves, folded up, as they al
ways are, in the young bud.
This monstrosity, for a monster it is, serves to
illustrate a very important truth, which those
who are engaged in works of decorative art,
should never lose sight of. Any amount of de
parture from the strict forms of plant-objects is
allowable in a conventional mode of representa
tion, provided that departure is consistent with
the rules by which is regulated the development
of the plants to be represented. These rules
constitute the theory of structure, which every
artist ought to understand .thoroughly, and the
case before us shows how it may be applied in
one direction, which was perhaps very little ex
pected. Flowers may be made to grow out of
flowers with perfect propriety, when the exigen
cies of art demand it; though leaves cannot be
made to grow out of leaves without violating
the first principle of vegetable structure, and
thus offending the educated eye by the produc
tion of that which is wholly irreconcilable with
tmthor possibility.— [Gardeners’ Chronicle.
-»«- •»
CULTURE OF THE GRAPE IN POTS.
We find in the Gardener’s Monthly an inter
esting article on the dwarf culture of the grape
in pots, which is being practiced by some of the
fruit growers about Philadelphia. This method
of growing the grape, as some might suppose, is
not confined to those, only, who are able to have
a hot house. It may be practiced by every fam
ily, however humble in circumstances, and be
made a pleasing occupation to all lovers of hor
ticultural pursuits. We have not the space to
give the article entire, but will give an abridge
ment, embracing all it contains of material inter
est to the reader:
11 One of the most successful cultivators of
the grape vine in pots in the vicinity of Phila
delphia, is Mr. Wm. Bright. We have lately
seen some specimens of pot vines, from Mr.
Bright’s vinery, loaded with ripe fruit, which we
think can scarcely be surpassed in perfection of
foliage, abundance of fruit, richness of colour,
and all desirable points, by any possible care and
skill.
Jn order that our readers may form some idea
of the perfection pot-culture of the vine may be
brought to, we saw one of Mr. Bright’s pot vines,
a Black Hamburg, two years old, only twenty
seven inches high, fruited in an eleven-inch pot,
bearing seven large bunches of grapes, estimat
ed to weigh four or five pounds, with broad
leaves of ‘ living green ’ without spot or blem
ish, and cone-like clusters of fruit of the most
perfect bloom and richest color.
Mr. Bright has some new and original views
of grape culture, especially of what he styles
the ‘ Dwarf Culture of the Grape Vino in pots,’
particularly in relation to fertilizing, 1 stopping '■
or dwarfing, which ho proposes to embody in a
little hand-book.
We have been kindly permitted to copy from
his forthcoming work the following remarks on
the uses and pleasures of Pot Vine Culture” :
“ The art of growing and fruiting the Grape
Vine in pots forms one of the most interesting,
elegant and profitable branches of modern hor
ticulture. When well understood, the culture of
the vine in this way will be found to be as sim
ple and as easy as in the border, and even bet
ter suited to the circumstances and wants of nu
merous amateurs and gardeners.
Anybody who lias a small forcing house, may
produce the best foreign grapes in pots in per
fection, without the costly preparations of the
vinery, and with very little trouble. If the
grape, when fruited, is an elegant object in the
vinery, it is much more so in the pot; and when
managed with skill, the mass oi splendid fruit,
which a single cane less than three feet in
height is capable of producing, cannot fail to ex
cite the admiration of every beholder.
For early forcing, the pot vine is exceedingly
convenient. The owner of a vinery may desire
a few early grapes, but it may be impossible or
undesirable to heat the borders early in the sea
son, and go into general forcing. In such cases,
with the control easily exercised over the pot
vines, we may start them in the hot-house in the
month of March, and after the fruit is set, ripen
in the cold vinery, and cut tho fruit in June or
July.
There is great economy of space in pot-cul
ture which commends it especially to persons
who have hot-houses of limited extent. Five
hundred square feet of glass will ripen about
250 pounds of grapes, in a common house, with
border-culture. In pots, 600 pounds at least
may be obtained under the same surface of
glass, and the period of ripening may be more
easily hastened or retarded; thus in a single *
house greatly extending the fruit season.
Grapes and pots may also be kept for three
or four months, upon the vines, after they ate
ripened, by removing the pots to a cool, dry,
airy room—even in the parlor—thus presenting
all the merit of a beautiful house plant, as an
object of interest, as well as a delicious source
of gratification to the palate. West’s St. Pe
ter’s, Muscat, and several other late grapes, ri
pened in pots on the Ist of October, will keep
on the vines in a cool, dry, airy room, till the
Ist of February or March.
The early fruiting of dwarf pot vines is an
other advantage greatly in their favor, as com
pared with common vines. Vines are so easily
produced in pots, that it is a matter of little con
sideration if you fruit them early, at the ex
pense of the existence of the vine, while in the
border you would be more careful to create a
strong cane before permitting it to fruit Vines
may be struck from the eye, and forced into per
fect and abundant fruiting in eighteen months.
You may strike vines from the eye in March,
and fruit them in pots the second season, mod
erately, without serious injury to the vine.
Properly and moderately fruited, the pot vine
is not destroyed, as many persons suppose, in
one or two seasons, but may be shitted from
small to larger pots, root-pruned, and again
placed in smaller pots, for years, the proper nu
triment for growing wood and perfecting fruit
being added to the soil at each change of pots,
and given in solution while bearing.
Growing foreign grapes in hot-houses is gen
erally considered a sort of rich man’s luxury.—
The pot vino may, on the contrary, be called the
poor man’s luxury. The grape m borders is
generally grown on man’s own estate. The p< t
vine may be called the tenant’s grape. In pots,
the grape may be grown in any sort of hot
house, even in a three light box, by the tenant
of the humblest cottage; and when he is sud
denly called upon, by any circumstance, to re
move, he may take his vine with him, at any
season of the year, and continue its culture at
his pleasure.”
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