PROCEEDINGS OF KINDRED SOCIETIES. 245 



Concord, and highly recommended by the late Prest. Wilder. A fine 

 grape also is the Jefferson. On the hills about Shelby, I am confident, 

 these market grapes would succeed. I advise planting them, for they will 

 help out when peaches fail. 



Mr. Lewis expressed a strong liking for the Concord, and asked if there 

 is not more money received for it than for any other sort grown in 

 Michigan. 



Mr. Phillips : Not in proportion to the number of pounds produced. 



Mr. Robinson : Has any one made a success of grape-growing in Mason 

 county, year by year, the past ten years? 



No one could say any one had. But Mr. Quackenbos said the Cham- 

 pion always ripens there and the Concord matured three years in ten; 

 yet Mason county is too far north for successful grape-growing. He asked 

 if any of the vineyardists present practiced summer pruning. 



Mr. Beebe: I do not, as a system, but prune whenever I find the vines 

 running wrong. I tried the pinching-in system on a few vines, but not 

 with success. 



Mr. Lannin: I have gone over my Niagara vines and nipped 

 this season's growth off at the third leaf beyond the last bunch of fruit. 

 I believe this to be the right way. I know it does not harm the vine 

 and that it makes good fruit. It enlarges both the leaves and the berries. 



Mr. Quackenbos: On my soil the vines will grow from eight to ten 

 feet in a season, and I know there is no use of so much. 



Mr. Lannin: Let no wood grow except what you have need of for next 

 year. To do so is to take from the fruit the sustenance of the vine. 



Mr. Meeritt: Why put the Concord in the market list, when it always 

 sells at a low price and you can do so well with the Niagara? 



Mr. Beebe: Because it is one of the best five, though not equal to the 

 Niagara. 



Mr. Meeritt : I would not i^ut in a grape that we can not make money 

 from. 



Mr. Houk: The Concord is too late for Mason county. I have some 

 Tines but they have ripened fruit but twice in ten years, and I wish they 

 were out. 



Mr. Beebe: I would recommend the Janesville and Champion for 

 Mason county. 



Mr. J. G. Ramsdell of South Haven sent the following paper, read by 

 W. A. Taylor, upon 



CULTIVATION OF GOOSEBEEEIES. 



Having written a paper on the cultivation of gooseberries and currants, 

 for this meeting, and expected to be present with you, I rested easy until 

 the time should arrive to go, when I found that circumstances prevented 

 me from attending, and also that by some strange accident my paper was 

 mislaid or lost. Now as the programme has me down for a paper on 

 gooseberries and not currants, here it is, with much haste and many 

 regrets. 



The cultivation of gooseberries has never been a business of much 

 importance in the United States until about thirty years ago, when some 

 very unsuccessful attempts were made to introduce the large English vari- 

 eties. These foreign kinds proved, almost without exception, very sad 

 failures. Removed from the cool, damp atmosphere of England, to a cli- 



