and give it time to rest and form new wood, stimulating it, if need be, by proper means to accomplish that object. This we think is far the best method."

We mean no disrespect when we say that this reasoning is superficial. In the first place, it is not a law of nature (though the writer calls it a "sort of a law of nature") that you cannot successfully grow wood and fruit at the same time, and so the writer thinks, for he qualifies his statement further by saying" at least it is true," etc. He mixes up vines and trees and manures, and then draws his inference "that his system is the best." Let us analyze a little In the first place, a vine is not a tree, while some fruit trees require rest after an abundant crop, no grape vine, under ordinary culture does require rest. In the next place, every grape vine does produce wood and fruit at the same time, and with equal freedom; and Mr. Bright's renewal system will not prevent the bearing vine of his system from producing much wood that he would have to prune away the next year, if he wished to get another crop of fruit from it. In the next place, it is queer that manures can be so applied to vines two feet apart, that for one year one will produce wood and the next year fruit; and the next one to it constantly produce just the opposite, and so they alternate from year to year.

This is running grape culture into a degree of nicety that may suit a vinery or border, but is utterly useless in vineyards. And to be candid, it seems to be all got up for the purpose of preparing the reader to fully appreciate "our grape fertilizer," which is very carefully hinted at as containing so many rare qualities, and to be just suited to this new and beautiful system. Upon a candid view of the whole matter, we believe in the "Ohio German method." What say you, reader? VERITAS.

For the Ohio Cultivator.

The Best Soil for Grape Growing.

To those about to invest capital and labor in the planting and fruiting of grape vines, the question, as to what soil as well as what location promise the best and most satisfactory results, is one of paramount importance. Grapes, it is true, can be grown anywhere that Indian corn will ripen, but the result in many locations and soils, in respect to quality and quantity as compared with the labor are not satisfactory.

The vineyards on Kelley's and other Islands in that section of Lake Erie, are the only vineyards ever visited by the writer, whereon the grapes ripened uniform and thoroughly year after year. At Cincinnati, Southern Illinois, Indiana, and for some one hundred miles south and west of St. Louis there are vineyards, where frequently the grapes ripen evenly, but the location before named is the only one where uniform, size and perfection of maturity has been the rule, not the exception.

In all these places, loamy clay has been the prevailing soil whereon have grown the best fruit, while every vineyard, or spot in a vineyard, having gravelly clay or sandy loam, has exhibited the fruit more or less imperfectly ripened, and the vine of a more slender growth. Loamy clays contain, within a given surface or space, a larger amount of food suited to the wants of the vine, than soils of a less retentive character, and they also retain in solution, the manures that may be from time to time applied, while those of a sandy character permit it to leach away, Again, the grape when it is a gross feeder, requires at the same time, a dry foot, and those who drain best, whether on clay or sand, obtain the best fruit, and the most perfeet wood.

On the southern borders of Lake Erie, most of those who have planted vineyards have selected sandy soils, under the impression that by so doing they would, from the

Morgan Co. Beets.-Mr. Joseph Sigler laid upon our table last Saturday, two of the largest beets we have seen this year. One of the Mangel Wurtzel species, weighed 12 warmth of the soil, hasten the period of malbs., the other of the Mammoth Blood spe- turity in the grape, and thus escape the earcies, weighed 11 lbs. Who can beat that.ly autumn frosts. They also are, as a rule, If there are any we would like to see them. erroneously impressed with belief that un

der-draining on sandy land is not necessary, and therefore a great saving in the first cost of stocking the vineyard.

periment is tried and its results arrived at, they will be the most valuable vineyard lands in the United States, and this will be

Cleveland, Nov. 30, 1861.

F. R. E.

For the Ohio Cultivator

Taking Care of Fruit Trees, &c.

Reply to the inquiries of G. W. Belote in Field Notes, 14th inst.:

1. A good wash for fruit trees is lye of wood ashes, about as strong as the second run from the leach tub. Or potash, one lb. to two gallons water; or better, sal soda one lb. to one gallon water. Still better, one gallon soft soap to two gallons soft water. Apply with an old broom, rubbing hard.

Having long and carefully watched this ere the year nineteen hundred shall be chronmatter, I have found that vines of Cataw-icled. ba, Isabella, and Aiken grapes, have all matured their fruit more evenly and uniformly when grown upon well drained clay loams, whether upon the south shore of Lake Erie, or elsewhere, than upon sandy soils. I have also observed that after four to five years bearing, most of the vines on under-drained land whether clay or sand, have been afflicted with some disease, mildew, rot, etc., etc. Without writing an essay to explain all this, which is easily done, it is easy to conclude that wherever large and fine grapes well matured are desired, that a rich, strong clay loam, well under-drained is the best soil, and if location can be selected, one looking to the south and east should be obtained, and level land, protected from from the north and west either by a high board fence or hedge the next best. That next to clay, a dry, gravelly loam should be selected, and that the poorest possible selection for a vineyard, is one of light sand, with a compact, hard yellow sand subsoil.

These conclusions are for our coarse grapes, as the Catawbas, Concord, &c. &c., they being the varieties and character at which vignerons are aiming. But there is one step ahead, and which has got to, and will come, before we shall fairly lay claim to a grape and wine-producing people. It is the growing of a finer character of grape; one that while it will not yield more than one half to two-thirds as much fruit to the acre, will nevertheless make a wine of a far higher and more valuable grade.

To this end the now apparently wortless hills of broken calcareous limestone in Missouri, and a large portion of South Bass, and some other islands in Lake Erie are peculiarly adapted. These lands cannot be cultivated with the plow, and until some one is bold enough to make the experiment of growing upon them a grape adapted to their character, and produce a wine therefrom, they will, as they have heretofore, probably remain barren and worthless; once the ex

2. We should prefer to whitewash trees late in autumn.

3. Although our prejudices are against such applications, we are not aware that whitewash has proved harmful, while it is claimed to be useful in destroying insects and their eggs or larva, besides reflecting the sun, and thus protecting the body from its injurious effects in winter.

4. We should not place much dependence upon whitewash as a protection from rabbits; better tie lath or bark around the bodies, or wrap with strips of cotton cloth.

5. Grape vines may be planted with about equal success spring or fall; in either case the work should be done early; if in fall protect with a few inches of dry leaves or litter, or if in spring mulch soon after planting. A. G. H.

Columbus, Dec. 17th, 1861.

Late Strawberries.-Mr. Robert Morrison, of Meigsville Township, laid on our table, last Saturday, a bunch of fine strawthe Hovey Seedling, and were grown out in berries. They are of the species known as the strawberry garden without any protection from the cold and frosts of winter.They were full grown, ripe and perfect. Mr. Morrison informed us that a large portion of his garden is now in bloom. To in this climate, is a somewhat strange occurhave strawberries grow and ripen in winter rence. Can any of our strawberry growers explain this mystery?-Morgan Co. Eng.

It has been fashionable ever since the days of the great Washington, for Presidents and Governors to treat the people to a yearly cookie-lunch of complacent and patronizing compliment, commending to the wise consideration of Legislators an undefinable idea, so to speak, of a something that ought to be done, but as to what or how, both the commendor and commendees seem to be very much in the fog, and never succeed in getting out of it; thinking doubtless like some good praying people who daily repeat words to the effect, that Thy kingdom may come, etc., just as if their duty ended with the voice of the petition.

The above cited commendatory suggestions are sometimes varied by specific items gleaned from some Advisory Board or advisory individual, who may happen to have axes to grind, and think that Government should find stone and a relay of hands to turn for them. So universally has this thing taken one or other of these phases, that we have come to look upon its exhibition in much the same light as we do the salvo of Respectfully Yours, at the end of a letter filled with scarcely masked batteries.

President Lincoln is no exception to the above mentioned examples; but he frankly admits his unpreparedness to suggest details of any matter of progress in our industrial sphere. Of all men called to the Presidential chair since the days of the Farmer of Mt. Vernon, we did hope that the man who had mauled rails upon the Sangamon and kept a grocery at New Salem-a man who had grown up (a good way up) among the people, would have some practical idea of this question. Candor compels us to admit that the President has been be-deviled with the war question ever since his inauguration, but the reference by him of details in any

projects looking towards agricultural advancement, to such purely politicians as Mr. Seward and Caleb B. Smith, was as unfortunate as their labors in this direction will turn out to be inefficient.

The project for an American representation at the World's Fair, which passed Congress at the extra session, has got so tangled up with the red tape of the Secretaries of State and the Interior, that its object is absolutely defeated, and the best thing to be done, is to bury the carcass before it stinks above ground.

The long mooted question of an Agricultural Department at Washington, is thus disposed of by President Lincoln's late message:

"Agriculture, confessedly the largest interest of the nation, has not a department or a bureau, but a clerkship only assigned to it in the Government. While it is fortunate that this great interest is so independent in its nature as not to have demanded and extorted more from the Government, I respectfully ask Congress to convoluntarily with general advantage. Annual sider whether something more cannot be given reports exhibiting the condition of our agriculture, commerce and manufactures, would present a fund of information of great practical Value to the country. While I make no sugan agricultural and statistical bureau might gestion as to details, I venture the opinion that profitably be organized."

If this is not a very harmless and palatable sop, we misunderstand the uses of language. A cookie with caraway seeds in it, and a few drops of paregoric! If the children of Suckerdom are to be reared on such thin political confectionery, the race of rail-splitters is nearly extinct. "It is fortunate that this great interest is so independent in its nature," and it would be still more fortunate, if other and more pretentious interests of the nation were equally so. "Annual Reports" are good things for some uses, but if this suggestion contemplates the infiction of the duplication of the annual farce of the Agricultural Division of the Patent Office, cellent litany-Good Lord Deliver Us! we have only to say in the language of our ex

THE ANNUAL AGRICULTURAL CONNENTION will be held in this city commencing on Wednesday the 8th day of January. We hope every county society will be represented by a good agriculturist, that no society will palm upon the convention a mere politician or man of straw, just because the Legislature brings him to the Capital at that time. If there is ever a time when we need faithful friends and good counsellors in the convention and in the State Board, that time is now. every Delegate will be fully qualified for his Therefore we hope duties by the possession of good sense and an intelligent familiarity with the particular demands of our industrial interests at this time.

We want no noisy political declaimers, but so- | horse,-who had gone in the van with the axeber and patriotic men who have been long men at Bull Run,-now mad with rum, dragged enough identified with the agricultural move- down by a dozen stout men whose united ments of the State to act with a full understand strength could scarce control him, and pounded ing of the subject. All such men will be doub- to a gore of blood, to prevent him from demolly welcome at the annual meeting. ishing a drinking saloon where he had been offended.

A Retrospect of the Year.

Next came the mustering in for the war, when the battalions poured into the Capital and filed up to the State house, to be sent into camp. This lasted till into the autumn, since which time the scene has changed, and now these promenades are trod by genteel men in officers' uniform, and genteel civilians, seeking rank in the service. This has been the every-day picture from our window till now. Next week will bring us the avalanche of Legislators and office hunters for the new State administration.

Of the progress of agricultural affairs in the country, we have, made notes from week to week during the season. Our garners are full of staple products, the grazing fields are stocked with excellent cattle, the feeding grounds are thronged with fat hogs, prices are much better for the farmer than for any other class of citiizens, except knavish army merchants, gold has been scattered with a lavish hand, our home currency is good as gold, and we go into the winter with a rising market.

Standing between two years we look back upon the one and forward to the other, with busy recollection and curious expectation. Sitting here by the ample look-out of our window, the massive Capitol looms up in the foreground, like a fortress that may well defy the tooth of time, and the unfriendliness of destroying elements, The wide park which surrounds it, lies, in the yellow sunlight, like a lap of beauty. Through those broad avenues and up those marble steps, have been a constant tread of strangers, every day, for more than a year. First came the rush of Legislators and their followers, all excited and charged to the muzzle, with a great mission; every one of them feeling that the safety and salvation of the nation depended upon his individual action. The country must be put in shape for the incoming Rebublican adminstration of Mr. Lincoln. Government offices were to be in the market, and many were the patriotic citA United izens who desired to fill them. States Senator was to be elected, and the political elements were put under screws and stretchers, till the fibres cracked or twanged like tense fiddle strings. That matter settled, then came the mutterings of war and the crude schemes of defence from men who could hardly comprehend the details of a cornstalk regiment for Fourth of July parade. In the midst of this blind leading the blind, came the thunders of Sumter and the call to arms! Then the work began in earnest; every hour in the day,-and many times in the night-came throngs of citizen soldiers, tramping up these avenues to be sworn into the service of the State. Clad in the plain garb of the mechanic, the farmer or the laborer; with un-military looking carpet-bag or bundle, drenched in those April rains, and shiv-ing in a commodious room in their large wareering on uncomfortable beds, they were taking their first lessons in the school of the soldier. How those spoiled boys longed for their mothers' cupboard, and those unsophisticated men pined for wifely attentions,-how they suffered and grumbled and cursed, is written in the history of those days.

The next era was the return of three months men, when the suffering and grumbling and cursing were re-enacted, with the additional garnish of such rough accomplishments as had been learned in camp. Under our window we saw a giant man, with muscles like a Norman

Beyond this no human eye can look with any intelligent solution of the great question before us. Thus far, it must be confessed, our armies have not acheived anything like the success which their vast magnitude and armament seemed to justify us to expect: but we will not criticise hastily; winter has overtaken them, and unless they make their way to a warmer field, little more campaigning can be done till next spring.

SUGAR GROWERS' CONVENTION.

- We are

glad to notice that quite an interest is awakened in behalf of the Sugar Growers' Convention to meet in this city on the 7th of January, the day before the annual agricultural meeting. Messrs. J. L. Gill & Son have arranged for the meet

house on High street, where all visitors will be welcomed, and besides the direct object of the meeting, can take a look through the largest assortment of all manner of plows and other implements, to be found in any house in Ohio.

DO YOU WANT TO SWAP? Any subscriber to the Ohio Cultivator for 1862, or any person receiving it as a premium from any fair or otherwise, can have Field Notes for 1862 instead of the Cultivator, by remitting us one dollar and informing us of their post-office address.

Great talkers, little doers.

Mrs. Gage's Lectures. With the return of the lo long evenings and comparative leisure of Winter, people will seek instruction and amusement in social circles. Next to the press, the church and lecture room are the great agencies of social progress, and all three working together in harmony and in the right direction, are mighty for the accomplishment of right ends.

It is well known to the public, that our worthy associate, Mrs. Gage, has a peculiar gift in the way of social lectures, by which her auditors are always both entertained and instructed. Her object in this is to employ her talent to the most useful purpose, and that she may receive a reasonable compensation for her labors. Believing as she does, that it is a woman's right to earn her living, she is content with moderate wages, and though, according to the united testimony of many hearers, she gives as good as the best, yet she does not set herself up at the fancy prices of certain popular pretenders, who exact large sums of money for small return of stale talk.

Mrs. Gage speaks right from the heart and soul, with a readiness and command of language possessed by few of our best orators. Her favorite subjects for the present are, "The Needs of the Times," "Philosophy of Home Life," and where desirable is always prepared to deliver Lectures upon what she saw during her travels in the West Indies. These last we have never been privileged to listen to, but gentlemen who have heard them and in whose judgment we place the highest confidence, assure us that they present the most vivid and life-like picture of the countries and the people of that tropical region.

In her excursions among the people, Mrs. Gage desires to be received as a friend, without form or ceremony, that she may be put upon the most direct road to the hearts of the people whose friendly consideration she seeks to secure. Her usual practice is to secure a suitable room, such as a hall, church, school-room, or the like, pay the necessary expenses of the same where expenses must be incurred, and take up an admission fee of ten cents at the door, for her compensation. This is surely a very moderate return for the rich bill of fare with which she treats her audience. She is now making up her programme for the season, intending to spend the winter among the people in giving lectures and gathering information for her weekly contributions to Field Notes, which as she always travels with her eyes open, will be a rare treat to our readers. Persons

desirous of securing a visit from Mrs, Gage for this purpose, are requested to correspond with

her on this subject: her post office address will be Columbus, O., and letters received during her absence will receive early attention.

Grubs in Grass Fields.

A farmer and grazier of this county, who has facilities for extensive observation, informs us that the white grub of the May beetle is doing great damage in the grass fields, through a large extent of country in Central Ohio. The turf is literally ruined by these subterranean explorers, and the farmers are anxious to know how they may be destroyed. Some farmers turn hogs upon the fields to root them out. Where this is not practicable, it is proposed to harrow the fields thoroughly during any open spells in early winter, thus exposing the grubs to the freezing and thawing process. It is well known that no freezing will injure the grub when he is allowed to thaw out underground, thus proving the tenableness of Mr. Ferriss' suggestions last spring concerning the destruction of fruits, that the danger is in the thawing. We suppose a liberal application of quick lime or fresh wood ashes, or perhaps salt, in connection with the harrowing, would prove serviceable. We hope farmers will solve this question by thorough experiments, and report the results for publication.

I

I see a correspondent expresses anxiety about the drepredations of the grub-worm the coming season. They have been bad the past season, and your correspondent fears they will be worse next season. think his fears are unfounded. They have done great injury in this section of country to the meadows and pastures, and the effects will be seen next summer, but I know no reason to apprehend a continuance of their depredations. the upland meadows and pastures of portion of Muskingum county were entirely destroyed by them; and the next season they entirely disappeared.

In the summer of 1836

This grub is a voracious eater, but a slow traveler, and when a piece of grass is eaten up by them, the whole army which has done the mischeif, perishes on the field for want of food. I have seen their dead carcasses by the thousand on rolling up the dead sod. "I think if the proper course is pursued