The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1866-07-04
RECENT PUBLICATIONS..

PRACTICAL AND SCIENTIFIC FRUIT CULTURE.
This is the title of very handsome volume
of some 500 pages, just issued by Lee and
Shepard of Boston, and for sale in this city by
Short and Loring. 1t is prepared by Mr.
Charles R. Baker, of the Dorchester Nurseries,
an acknowledged authority in matters pertain
ing to fruit culture, and is intended to meet the
existing want of practical treatise which
should give the processes of successful cultiva-
ton more in detail than they are given in any
of the works now in use upon this subject The
whole business of fruit raising is here subjected
to very thorough and scientific, and at the
ssme time simple and practical treatment: and
the total result is much larger amount of use
full and available information upon the subject
than is contained in any other treatise which
we remember to have met with. The charac-
ter and treatment of soils, the uses of drain
age and the best agents of fertilization, the in
huences of the atmosphere, of light, heat and
electricity, the rules to be observed in the Sc
lection of varieties, in arrangement and trans
plantation, the best processes for grating, bud
ding, pruning and training, all these will be
found treated of in their proper place, and in
manner peculiarly clear and Ineligible.
A good deal of space is devoted to the impor-
tant subject of the diseases of fruit-bearing
p1arss,"ir the best methods of prevention
and cure, and also the various noxlous insects
which infest the garden and orchard. This
portion of the work will be found of great val
ne.
The book is very handsomely printed and
bound, and is illustrated by great number of
drawings executed in the best manner.
GRAPES AND WINE.
OF kindred character to the above is a little
volume just published by Messrs. Geo. E. and
f. w. Woodward, of New York. 1t is entitled,
"The cultivation of the Native Grape, and the
Manufacture of American Wines" and is writ
ten by Mr.. George Husmann, of Hermann,
Missouri, for many years an ardent and perse-
vering experimenter in the business OF which
he here treats. Mr.. Husmann is German by
birth, whose whole life has been devoted to the
study and culture of the vine, and every state
ment which he here makes is, we are assured, a
fact which his own experience has verified; ev-
cry item of cost or profit is derived from actual
experiments made on large scale by himself
or his neighbors, and all descriptions of the va
rious varieties of grapes have been obtained by
carefully cultivating and watching these differ
emit kinds. s.s,...
Notwithstanding the writer's evident enthu-
siasm for the subject he has in hand, there is a
moderation, and freedom from exaggeration in
his statements which commands the confidence
| of the reader; and the effect of his book is to
awaken strong feeling of surprise, not only at
the remarkable adaptation of the soil and eli
mate of various parts OF the United States to the
culture of the vine, but at the great extent to
which the manufacture of choice and valuable
wines is already carried on in this country
| We really can see no reason why, if the present
! rate of progress is maintained, ours should not
become in fifty years the greatest wine-pro-
| ducing country in the world. That Mr.. Hus-
| mann does not think such result improbable
| NAV be gathered from the following proud and
| enthusiastic words with which this patriotic
| German American concludes the preface to his
| little book: - IA
| To all and every one who plants single vine
I would extend the hand of good fellowship
for he is a laborer in the great work to cover
this glorious land of the free with smiling vine
yards, and to make its barren spots flow with
| noble grape Juice, one of the best gifts of an
all-bountiful Creator. All hail to you from
| Free Missouri.
The above is for sale by Bailey & Noyes.