wares, and Dianas, with moderately good returns from the best numbers of the hybrids, we may well rejoice that our luck is no worse, and go on planting vines, and preaching viticulture to the unbelievers.

Very many vines whose young growth was cut completely down in May pushed out vigorous canes from their dormant buds, and some of them even exhibited a tolerable show of fruit on wood of this second growth.

I saw in my own garden no leaf-mildew, but observed a few mildewed berries on Rogers 15.

In some situations where the vines were shaded by fruit-trees, mildew and genuine rot raged without let or hinderance in the month of August; but the same varieties of grapes in dry positions were unaffected.

ALLEN'S HYBRID.

This vine, cut down by frost in May, made a strong, vigorous second growth, was untouched by mildew, and ripened its wood well. I had no fruit.

ADIRONDAC.

My solitary vine was nearly ruined by the frost. I saw this grape in E. S. Rogers's garden, in Salem, Mass., on the 17th of August, purple, sweet, and two-thirds ripe, in a very unfavorable situation. I infer that it is very early, and we are abundantly assured that it is very good.

CLARA.

Vine a strong, vigorous, and handsome grower. Grapes hard, sour, and worthless Sept. 29. Probably of no value here.

CONCORD.

This variety, of course, maintains its well-earned reputation. Not thoroughly ripe with me till very late in September; but my vines bore a full crop, with many bunches weighing from eight to nine and a half ounces each.

Vigorous and healthy.

second growth.

CREVELING.

Vines cut down by frost, but made a good

CLINTON.

About three-quarters ripe on Sept. 15, and not improving much after Sept. 30. To those who may not be familiar with the fact, I can say that the despised Clinton makes an excellent jelly.

DELAWARE.

My vines mostly escaped the frost; and one six years old, but which has been only two years in its present position, I had the pleasure of seeing ripen seventy-six fine bunches. The berries were nearly ripe Sept. 15, but not so mature as to satisfy a critical taste till after the 20th.

DIANA.

Vines luxuriant, vigorous, and healthy. ripening with tolerable evenness, Oct. 1.

Fruit well set, handsome, and
The Diana not only hangs well

on the vine, but seems to go on maturing its berries after frosts sufficiently hard to strip off most of the leaves.

FRANKLIN.

Strong, rampant grower; seeming, in this respect, much like the Clinton. Fruit prospects ruined by the May frost.

HARTFORD PROLIFIC.

Vines healthy. Berries dead-ripe Sept. 15.

IONA.

With one exception, my young vines of this variety were cut down by the late frost. They recovered speedily, and made a good healthy growth. If this vine proves as vigorous and hardy as its fruit is delicious, its rank is settled. I received some fine clusters of the Iona from Dr. Grant this fall; and am obliged to say, in spite of my strong prejudices, that it is simply the best out-door grape I have ever tasted.

I am not familiar enough with the Adirondac to institute comparison between the two varieties; but, speaking of the Iona alone, I am constrained to say that it is pre-eminently a beautiful, delicious, and, to borrow its originator's favorite word, refreshing grape.

ISABELLA.

When I laid the axe to the root of my old Isabella vines, I spared one for further trial. I do not see the need of keeping even this one. It is, in my experience, a most uncertain and untrustworthy grape.

ISRAELLA.

Vines injured by frost. Vigorous, healthy, and free from all signs of mildew. No fruit.

LOGAN.

A good grower, with very distinct foliage. Fruit well colored Sept. 4, unripe Sept. 15, and not particularly good a fortnight later. This grape is deceptive in regard to coloring, and of no great value.

REBECCA.

My vines, in sandy soil well manured, are feeble, delicate growers, making slender wood, and dropping their leaves far too early in autumn.

ROGERS'S HYBRIDS.

I have fruited only the numbers 4, 15, and 19, this year; but all these have come up to the usual standard.

Number 4. I permitted too many bunches to remain on the vine; and the consequence was, that they did not ripen till Sept. 30. Sweet, good, and in many respects desirable, but not equal, in my opinion, to the other

two.

Number 15. My vines were badly cut down, but ripened a tolerable crop by Sept. 20.

Mr. Rogers calls this his best number; and in growth, vigor, and good qualities of fruit, it is certainly a very fine grape.

Number 19.- Vigorous, strong, and extremely productive. The berries began to color Aug. 27; and, by the 4th of the next month, were thoroughly purple.

On the 15th of September, they were about ripe, being full as early as the Delaware, and one of the handsomest and showiest grapes raised out doors. I think highly of this number, and shall plant a good many vines.

TAYLOR.

Vine strong, vigorous, and handsome. Berries very small, green, deceptively like Delawares when young, getting semi-transparent by Sept. 30, but at that date sour and worthless. It seems hardly possible that this is the grape praised at the West for its wine-making properties.

UNION VILLAGE.

Vine vigorous, luxuriant, and healthy. Not hardy: a fact that has impressed itself upon my notice by the way in which some seedlings of mine from this variety were winter-killed. They seemed almost as tender as a foreign kind.

Berries well colored, and about three-quarters ripe, Sept. 30. One vine of this kind should have a corner in the garden, for the sake of the display the bunches make even if not ripe.

ble

I find I have omitted in the above list Alvey and Conby's August, tolera

growers, and healthy, but of no great merit or value in this latitude.

We shall all live, I trust, to see the present immense list of grapes cut down to six or eight good, trustworthy kinds, the rest vanishing, unwept, into the limbo of the rejected; while amateurs and grape-growers impose the most rigid tests upon new candidates for favor, approving none that do not approximate, at least, to the high standard of the Iona, Delaware, and Diana.

Nothing but the most rigid sternness in this respect, on the part of those who undertake to instruct the grape-planting public, will save purchasers and growers from immense vexation, loss of time, and discouragement. 7. M. Merrick, Jun.

VOL. I.

3

A GARDEN is, strictly speaking, a piece of ground highly embellished. Its use is to please, to gratify the senses; and it does this by presenting to the eyes at every step the most choice and delightful images and combinations. In this country, perhaps in others, it has been the custom to call many a piece of ground a "garden" which could with little propriety lay claim to the name. They are so called, in fact, only by the same democratic courtesy which accords to women of every character and degree the title of "lady." A parterre of flowers mixed up in heterogeneous confusion is not a garden: a piece of ground, part lawn, part wood, part swamp, part strawberry-beds, part shrubs, part beds of flowers, is not a