Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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.” 223