32 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



valuable animal unless you take the pains to nurture and care for it three hun- 

 dred and sixty-five days in each year; neither must you expect to "gather 

 grapes of thorns," or to fully enjoy this great blessing unless you are willing 

 to give the little care and attention necessary. 



The importance of the subject might justify me in pausing here to dilate 

 upon the medicinal qualities of the grape and its great value as a restorative 

 food; but I shall take it for granted that all are awake to these important 

 points, and I shall only endeavor to answer the question "how a supply can be 

 cheaply and successfully obtained." 



To tell how a farmer can secure a full supply is to tell how a grape grower 

 can obtain the best results in a vineyard, for what is good treatment for a 

 single vine is good treatment for a hundred or thousand. To set a few vines 

 and let them run wild will only end in disappointment; so if my instructions 

 smack of the professional, remember that "what is worth doing at all is worth 

 doing well." In all our operations as fruit growers we should "drink deep, or 

 touch not the Pierian spring;" but much of the attention needed to secure the 

 best results can be given by the wife or daughters, and be both healthful and 

 pleasant. 



In answering the question let us consider the necessary conditions under the 

 following heads : soil, situation, culture, training, varieties. 



SOIL. 



That your beautiful State, resting in the bosom of the great lakes, has a 

 soil and climate congenial to the growth of the grape, needs no other proof 

 than the tangled masses of wild vines that line the banks of her rivers and run 

 rampant over the tops of the trees. In selecting a location on the farm of 

 course there is a choice. The grape, to show the best results, should have a 

 soil with more or less clay; but they do fairly well on almost any soil, if it is 

 dry. Bemember the grape is nearly as sensitive as the peach to having wet 

 feet. Unless your soil is naturally dry, see to it that it is made so by a few 

 deep surface ditches, or what is better, underdrains put deep. Vines will 

 do well for a few years and then gradually fail. In all such cases you will find 

 their roots have reached so deep into the soil as to be permanently wet, and 

 there is no remedy but to drain still deeper. A little surface moisture in the 

 winter or spring, or a good deal even, does them no harm providing it soon 

 runs off and the subsoil is porous and dry. Select a piece of dry, moderately 

 rich, clayey, gravelly or sandy soil, preferable in the order named. 



SITUATION. 



In selecting a site for your vineyard remember the grape is a child of the 

 sunshine. You could no more expect it to do well and be healthy, bearing 

 full crops of its best fruit in the best condition deprived of the sunshine than 

 to expect the cheeks of your daughters to be rosy, their steps elastic, and they 

 to be merry, bubbling over with life and spirits, deprived of the same genial 

 influence. A few vines placed on the south, east or west sides of your build- 

 ings will give a good report of themselves; but for the main supply better 

 place them where the vines shall have full exposure to sun and wind. Place 

 the rows north and south if possible so the sun shall have full effect on both 

 sides the vines and also on the ground, as nothing so quickly destroys fungus 

 and disease in plants or men as sunshine. 



CULTURE. 



The grape does not demand any extra treatment. As I have said before, be 



