wood, or short, with only one bud, or one bud and a half joint, &c. Vines are to be had at the nurseries, propagated either from layers, cuttings, or eyes; but plants raised from cuttings are generally preferred; many are of opinion that it is a matter of indifference from which class the choice is made, provided the plants are well rooted, and in good health, and the wood ripe. A mode of very general utility is to select the plants in the nursery a year before wanted, and to order them to be potted in very large pots. Varieties without end are raised from seed, and it is thought that by propagating from the seed of successive generations, some sorts may ultimately be procured, better adapted for ripening their fruit in the open air than now known. A seedling vine, carefully treated, will show blossoms in its fourth or fifth year; say that it produces a fair specimen of its fruit in the sixth year, then a new generation may be obtained so often; but seed ought never to be sown, except for experiment.

The following method of grafting the vine is recommended by Mr. Loudon: Select a scion with one good eye; pare it beneath the eye and on the opposite side, in the form of a wedge. Select from the stock to be grafted on, a branch of the preceding year; cut this off a little above the second eye from its base; then with a sharp knife split it down the centre nearly to the old wood. Out of each half of the stock, but chiefly out of that half which is opposite the bud, pare off as much as is necessary to make it fit the scion, which must be inserted with its eye opposite to the eye which is left on the top of the stock, and bandaged together carefully with bass matting. Some use grafting clay, others composition; in either case, a small hole for the eye of the graft, and another hole for the eye left on the stock, must be left open. Tie over a little moss, to be occasionally sprinkled with water. It is very essential that the young shoot on the top of the stock should be allowed to grow for ten or fifteen days; then cut it off, leaving only one eye and one

leaf to draw the sap and keep alive the circulation, till both scion and stock are perfectly united.

William Robert Prince, in his Treatise on the Vine, published in 1830, enumerated about five hundred and fifty varieties under cultivation, in the vineyard attached to the Linnæan Botanic Garden at Flushing, including about ninety American native Grapes; but no sufficient evidence has as yet been exhibited of the foreign varieties flourishing in vineyards here, equal to what they do in Europe. Mr. Loubat once attempted to establish a vineyard on Long Island, which he abandoned after six years' arduous exertion. The following have been found to succeed best in private sheltered gardens in the vicinity of New-York: the Sweetwater, the Chasselas, the Muscadine, the White Tokay, the Black Hamburgh, the Blue Cortiga, the Miller Burgundy, the Austrian Muscadel, the Messlier, the Morilon, the Black Prince, Blanc, and some excellent seedling sorts from the imported Lisbon Grapes. To plant a vinery for a full crop of good Grapes of various flavours, take a white and red Muscat, a white and red, or black Muscadel, a white Raisin Grape, a white and red Hamburgh, a Stilwell's, and red Sweetwater, a white and red Nicé, a black Damascus, a red Syracuse, and a black Constantia. The above list contains some of the most esteemed table Grapes of all colours and flavours, which will ripen in succession,

SELECT DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF NATIVE

GRAPES.

Alexander, Constantia of Vevay, Madeira of York, Pa., Winné, Schuylkill Muscadel. A good wine fruit, of large size, blackish colour, and oblong form; very juicy and pungent; a great and sure bearer.

BLAND, Bland's Madeira, Bland's Virginia, Mazzei, Powel. A pale red grape, of large size and round shape, rather musky, but the juice is sweet and lively.

CAROLINA PERFUMED. A medium sized fruit, of purple colour and rather an unpleasant odour; it is, however, considered as well adapted for wine, being rather pungent, very juicy, and pulpless.

CATAWBA, Red Muncy, To Kalon. A fine variety, above medium size, of dark red colour, in form round, in flavour delicious for the dessert, and highly productive; it ripens soon after the Isabella.

CUNNINGHAM. A native of Prince Edward's county, Virginia; the berries are round, black, of medium size, and not liable to rot; they are said to resemble, in taste, the Nigrillo of Madeira, and are considered good for wine as well as for the table.

ELSINBURG. Fruit small, round, of purple colour, and delicate musky flavour, without pulp; good for wine, and as a dessert fruit; the vine is very hardy and productive.

HIDE'S ELIZA.

Berries large, oval, of violet colour, and excellent fla

vour; alike suited for the dessert and for wine.

Fruit large,

ISABELLA. A well known and highly estimated variety. oval, of rich purple colour, covered with bloom; skin, under good cultivation, thin; flesh juicy, rich, and vinous; an excellent dessert fruit.

LUFBOROUGH. A sweet fox grape of large size and round shape; skin,

dark purple ; pulp dissolving in a saccharine musky juice.

MADDOX. A good wine grape, not liable to rot; it is of medium size; roundish; of a brownish red colour, and a brisk vinous flavour.

NORTON'S VIRGINIA SEEDLING, Longworth's Ohio. An early fruit of medium size and dark purple colour; it ripens in September; makes excellent wine; it is also generally approved as a dessert fruit.

POND'S SEEDLING. A large purple grape of roundish form, thin skin, and of rich pungent flavour; adapted for wine, as well as for the table. SCUPPERNONG. This species is very prolific; the berries are large, roundish, and of a colour varying from brick red to black; makes peculiar Muscat wine, and is highly esteemed as a dessert fruit.

WARREN, Madeira. A round fruit of medium size and dark purple colour; it is considered by some as the most luscious of all native grapes; it makes excellent wine.

WOODSON. A small round black Virginian variety, from Prince Edward's county; it is celebrated as a very proper fruit for the manufacture of sparkling wine; it ripens later than most other varieties, but yields abundantly.

The above list comprises the most esteemed species of Native Grapes under cultivation; the greater part of which, with the best of the foreign varieties, may be purchased at the Commercial Garden and Nursery of Messrs. Parsons & Co., Flushing, Long Island, near New-York,

Previous to planting vines, care should be taken that the ground be well pulverized and prepared for some distance around for the roots to spread. The soil should be deep and dry, and some rich compost, or vegetable mould, should be used around the roots in filling in; a handful or two of wet

I

ashes to each plant is recommended by Mr. Loubat, as beneficial; and he recommends the planting to be done in the month of March, or early in April.

There are various methods adopted in training and pruning the vine; and it appears impossible to lay down rules to suit every cultivator. The vine having, like other trees, a tendency to produce its most vigorous shoots at the extremities of the branches, and particularly so at those which are situated highest, it generally happens, when it is trained high, that the greater portion of the fruit is borne near the top; and it has been observed, that the fruit produced on the vigorous shoots, which naturally grow at the extremities of the long branches, is generally more abundant, and of finer quality than that produced on the short lateral ones, from which circumstance, high training seems to be the best calculated for private gardens.

In some parts of Italy, vines are cultivated together with Mulberry trees, and are allowed to mingle and hang in festoons; thus silk and wine are produced on the same spot; and it is considered that when vines are allowed to grow over trees, on the side of a house, or on bowers, or extended on tall poles, without much trimming, they will produce more fruit, and are not so liable to mildew.

Dr. G. W. Chapman, of New-York, having paid some attention to the cultivation of native Grapes, observes, that the vine, in its natural state, seldom or never throws out bearing shoots until it reaches the top of the tree on which it ascends, when the branches take a horizontal or descending position. From this fact he considers horizontal training preferable to that in the fan shape. From the experiments he has made, he has found that the shoots coming from those parts of the branches bent downward, are more productive than from those ascending; he considers deep digging around the vine, even to the destruction of some of the extending roots, as calculated to promote the growth of more fruit and less wood, than if allowed to spread near the sur

face; and he disapproves stopping the shoots before the fruit until early in July.

Mr. William Wilson, of Clermont, leaves his foreign vines their whole length at the time of trimming in October. In November, they are laid on the ground at full length, fastened down with pins, and covered lightly with earth; in this state they lie all the winter. In April, as soon as the weather will permit, they are uncovered, and left lying on the ground ten or twelve days: by the first of May, the vines are trained to stakes or poles of the length of ten feet and upward; and by the middle of June the stakes are entirely covered by new shoots of the vine, and with plenty of fruit, which ripens in September. Mr. W. says, that until he pursued his present course, his fruit was frequently blasted and mildewed, but that he has now vines twenty or thirty feet long, which run up the fruit trees adjoining; others, being carried up eight or ten feet, are stretched horizontally. It is seldom he gathers fruit within three or four feet of the ground, and he has never any blasted or infected with mildew; he keeps the ground cultivated by frequent hoeing; but he says he has used no manure for ten years or more.

Edward H. Bonsall has a vineyard of American Grapes at Germantown, Pa., in a high state of cultivation. In page 331 of Prince's Treatise on the Vine, is a letter to the author, containing some valuable information, from which the following is extracted as appropriate to our subject.

Mr. Bonsall's vineyard is situated between the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, four miles from the former, and eight from the latter, at an elevation of three hundred feet above their level; has an aspect facing S. S. E., with a substratum of light isinglass soil, and seems well suited to the purpose. He says, "from my experience, both on my premises and at other places, it is my opinion that we should reject almost all the foreign varieties, especially where our object in cultivating them is to make wine." He has upward of thirty varieties of American vines under cultivation; he recom