WINTER MEETING. 197 



up to fourteen feet, but consider the greater distance no advantage. 

 ¥oT Moore's Early seven feet by six is a good distance. It is not so 

 rank a grower as Concord. In preparing to plant grapes, plow deep. 

 Use two horses with an ordinary plow, and follow with another team 

 with a subsoil plow. 



Don't plant the vines in deep holes. They never do well in that 

 way. Give shallow culture; just keep the top of the ground stirred. 

 We train on the renewal system, heading 15 inches above the ground. 

 If the variety is tender, head low, so we can lay down the vines and 

 cover them with straw, with a little dirt on the straw cover. In some 

 sections, if the vines are bent down they will be covered sufficiently 

 with snow. v 



In July plow toward the vines to be laid down. We lay down 

 Goethe, Delaware, such as these. We care little for fertilizers; our 

 soils are ordinarily rich enough. We aim to keep the grapes shaded 

 by the foliage, so the sun will not strike them. If our vines grow too 

 vigorously we pinch. As soon as spraying becomes necessary, we must 

 pinch some of the free-growing varieties, so the mixture can be put on 

 the fruit. Those not pinched ripen earlier, and have finer bunches. 

 We have sometimes pinched too much. We have grapes planted 30 

 feet above the river and farther back on the clay hills. 



REPORTS FROM COUNTY SOCIETIES. 



J. C. Bender — In Buchanan, our land is of the limestone character. 

 Grapes this year had a large half crop. Fifteen hundred barrels of 

 apples were shipped from St. Joseph. Moses Townsend sold the fruit 

 in a 35-acre orchard to an Ohio man for $5500 in the orchard. 



L. A. Goodman — What is your Society doing I 



Mr, Bender — We have started a library, to which every member 

 of the Society has access. We meet once a month. We have 1000 

 volumes in the library. 



JASPER COUNTY. 



Mr. Russell — ^We have monthly meetings, except in August, Sep- 

 tember and October, when we were too busy. A few years ago, before 

 the rust came, we had fine crops of strawberries. 



COOPER COUNTY. 



C. C. Bell — We have only fifteen active members. Financially we 

 are all right. We have paid over $1600 for a piece of ground on which 

 to build a hall. We meet three or four times a year. 



