The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-10-04
AGRICULTURAl.
MANAGEMENT OF GRAPE VINES.

growing grapes, that this is the proper
season to lay down long branches for
producing future plants, as has been
so often recommended in this paper.
[ raised a number of these last
season, and was surprised at the Eigor
of theSplan ts thus grown, and the
close mat Of fibrous roots. Without
any desire to spoil trade, / must say
that you seldom get such plants out of
a nursery as you can raise yourself.
Pin long branch down into a shall
low trench, and when all the buds
have made growth of several inches,
gradually fill the trench up with earth,
checking, by pinching, and disposition
of some shoots to outgrow the others.
| agree with B~F. j., in thinking
that we initiate European practice too
closely in cultivating the grape. Es-
pecially do we plant too near, and thin
and prune altogether too much. We
don't make allowance enough for the
have shade and a plenty of foliage to
maintain healthy equilibrium with
the root; there it may not be of so
much importance. l always leave
| three times 1as much wood as the
books direct, and if the crop of fruit
is too heavy. thin it out. Twenty
years ago we could easily grow grapes
by planting at thefoot of large trees,
and allowing the vines to run all over
them. A friend grew great quantities
of Catawbas and Isabellas in this way,
| and yearly got atfeast two barrels to
the vine of What I then thought was
the finest and choicest fruit I ever
saw. These-vines are long since dead,
| winter-killed. Now weare obliged to
cover our plants winter with
earth, even as farsouth as st. Louis,
and are lucky if we get-seven or eight
pounds of fruit where we once got
| fully one hundred pounds with much
greater ease. = Even with these draw
backs, growing the grape is the most
profitable branch4of agriculture that
we have, and-for more than a hundred
miles on the-Mississippi river banks
| it is the most certain crop that is
raised Country Gent.
A CHEAP AND GOOD SMOKE HOUSE.
A Western New York farmer pub
fishes his plan of q small, cheap, and
good smoke=house, which as it may
| contain some practical hints for our
| readers, we append it: :
No farmer should be without a
good smokes house, and such one as
will be fire. proof and toierably secure
from thieves. Fifty hams can be
| smoked at one time in a smoke- house
| seven by eight feet square. Mine is
six by sevenrandis large enough for
most farmers. / first dug all the
ground out below where the frost
would reach, and filled it up to the
surface with smallsstones. On this |
laid my brick floor, in lime mortar.
fThe walls are.brick, eight inches thick
and seven feet high, with door on
one side two feet wide The door
should be made of wood and lined
with sheet iron. For the top put on
joists, two byfour,se up edgwise, and
eight and half inches from center to
center, covered with brick, and put on
a heavy coat of mortar. [ built a
small chimney on the top in the GEN.
ter, arching it over and covering it
with shingfe roof in the usual way
An arch should be built on the out
side, with small iron door to shut it
up, similar to stove door, with hole
from the arch through the wall of the
|
it. This arch is much more conve-
nient and better to put the fire in than
to build fire inside the smoke house.
Good corn cobs or hickory wood are
the best materials to make smoke
for hams. The cost of such smoke
house as [ have described is about
$50"
CURING GREEN HIDES.
A great many butchers, wool deal
ers, &c, are purchasers of the hides of
/ the beef in the country towns, and we
often get from them inquiries as to
the most proper and profitable method
of curing the hide and preparing it for
| the market. "A great many butchers
do not use proper care in this branch,
| and the consequence is that the hides
will not pass city inspection, owing
| entirely to the ignorance and careless
ness OF the person who prepared them
| for market. : The proper way to salt
hides is, to lay them out fiat, flesh
| side up, and from a nearly square
bed, say Il by ID feet, folding in the
| edges so as to make them as nearly
solid as possible. Split the ear in the
cords that run up the ear In each one,
| so as to make them lie out fat.
| Sprinkle the hide with two or three
| shovelfuls ofScoarse salt, as the size
| may require-say, for sixty or eighty
pound hide, from ten to fifteen pounds
| of salt Atany rate cover the hide
we'll, as it need not be wasted; then
| let them lie in this form fifteen to
twenty days. after which take them
up, shake the salt out, and use it
| ora,p NLoasx,,J Tonyba,. Ponoo1a.