WINTER MEETING, 1S80. 39 



or three canes np to stakes four or five feet high. In either case he will have 

 grapes. But if he has to mow down the weeds the first and second fall after 

 planting to find the vines, he "speaks the truth and lies not" when he says 

 he can't grow grapes. 



Mr. H. B. Tucker, of Hillsdale, followed Mr. Bradfield's letter with an essay 

 upon the same topic. 



ME. TUCKER'S METHOD. 



I am requested to state to our farmers how a supply of grapes for a farmer's 

 home can be cheaply grown. 



Before doing this let me ask you to take the position of a " Tight Barnacle," 

 and learn "how not to do it." Don't begin by contracting with a stranger 

 for vines who proposes to furnish new and very rare varieties — possibly a late 

 importation of a famed old variety from California — an offspring of the big 

 vine which was produced by planting the whip which the Mexican woman used 

 in driving her cows from her old home in Mexico. When the vines come to 

 hand, don't select a spot in the front yard, where the grass has been growing 

 for twenty or more years, and with the grub-hoe cut holes through the turf 

 just large enough to crowd the roots in and cover out of sight. Then don't 

 spend ten or twenty dollars for a nice trellis or arbor for them to run on, for 

 they will never run very far ; so your time and money will be wasted. Nor 

 don't plant them close up by the side of the garden fence, where you can't 

 plow or cultivate with a horse on both sides of them. If the grape is not there 

 already it will be very soon, as you will always be too busy to cultivate them 

 with the hand hoe ; so this will be little or no better than the front yard. 



A good plan, and one that will be pretty sure to result satisfactorily, is to 

 select a place in the garden so far from the fence that they can be plowed and 

 cultivated each way ; make the land as rich and mellow as for a good garden ; 

 then plow one or more furrows about ten inches deep and eight feet apart. 

 The land being ready for the vines, go to a reliable nurseryman or vineyardist 

 as near home as may be, and purchase from twenty-five to fifty vines, accord- 

 ing to the number in the family ; about three-quarters of them Concords, or 

 some other good hardy native variety, and the other quarter Delawares. The 

 vines should be from two to four years old, with a good supply of small roots. 

 As soon as possible after removal from the nursery place them in the furrows, 

 about eight feet apart each way ; spread the roots as much as possible, and 

 cover them with fine surface earth. Cultivate the ground thoroughly, keeping 

 it mellow and clean of weeds and grass. This should be done every year. It 

 is quite as difficult to raise good grapes without good, thorough culture as to 

 raise good corn without it. 



We now have the vines in the ground with directions for the proper culture 

 to insure their growth. 



We now come to the most important part of the whole business, which is prun- 

 ing. On the knowledge and proper exercise of this act depends the question 

 of success or failure in the production of fruit. Thousands of vines have been 

 purchased and set by the farmers of this county which have not produced fruit 

 enough to repay the purchase money. They have been set out and left to run 

 in what has been called a "common-sense way;" that is, as they could. A 

 good system of pruning is what is known among vineyardists as "renewal," 

 which consists of cutting away all the old canes, and raising the fruit on those 

 of the previous year's growth. Before setting the vines cut away all the canes 

 except two, and leave two buds on each of them. The next November, or 



