PROCEEDINGS OF KINDRED SOCIETIES. 263 



R. Morrill: I would like to ask Mr. Smith about the horizontal 

 trellis and what he thinks the proper height for it. 



A. H. Smith: I think in some respects the horizontal is the best at 

 three feet high. It gives more space for the grapes to hang down and for 

 sun, light, and air. I have not used it myself. 



R. Morrill: I understand that at Poughkeepsie, N, Y., they place the 

 trellis high, so that the horse can go beneath it and the vines are almost 

 free from rot. 



Mr. BoGUE: We mostly use the upright trellis and I think it best for 

 all purposes. 



O. Beebe: I find the trellis blows over when high and the vines blow 

 down, and I think the single stake plan the best, as my vines even at four 

 feet high break in a high wind. 



A. H. Smith of Paw Paw, who had a fine display of grapes on the table, 

 read the subjoined paper on 



PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH GRAPES. 



In the spring of 1880 I set a vineyard of 2,000 vines — 1,000 Concord, 500 

 Delaware and 500 of various varieties, including Moore's, Champion, Hart- 

 ford, Ives, Lady, Martha, Worden, Brighton, etc. The location was a 

 high, steep, southern exposure, with a mixture of all kinds of soil, and very 

 stony. It was new land covered with stumps, some of which were pulled 

 out, but most of them were left until they became rotten enough to pull 

 easily. At present about a dozen of the old settlers still defy all efforts 

 to loosen them. 



The vines were set 6x8 feet and the ground occupied was 2^ acres. No 

 crop was planted between the rows, but the vines were kept well cultivated 

 and hoed. The second spring they were staked at a cost of about one 

 cent each, last year's growth cut back to two buds, and given clean culti- 

 vation until the first of August, when several days were spent picking up 

 and drawing off loose stone. The third spring the vines were all pruned 

 to one cane, long or short, according to their strength. Every year the 

 cultivation has been the same, beginning about the middle of April, and 

 cultivating every week or ten days until the middle or last of July. The 

 vineyard has been thoroughly hoed twice and sometimes three times each 

 season. On account of the steep side hill and the tendency of the soil to 

 wash, the vines have been trained to stakes and cultivated both ways. 

 The aim in pruning has been to leave the strongest and best ripened wood 

 (new growth) each year, cutting away weak canes entirely, leaving the old 

 wood or main stock from two to four feet high; and at each hoeing break- 

 ing off all suckers and sprouts near the ground. The pruning has always 

 been very close, cutting away from f to 5-6 of the growth. 



In the Concords I have experimented with several systems of pruning, 

 following it up year after year. In two rows, the two longest new canes 

 were left, cutting everything else away. For the first few years these 

 vines bore large clusters, but lately they fail to make sufiicient wood 

 growth. In two other rows four to six new canes were cut back to about 

 two feet long, but aside from being a bother to keep so many short canes 

 tied up I could see no difference from the rest of the vineyard. In the 

 next two rows all the canes were cut back to two buds, leaving the old 

 wood each year. This system has made so much old wood that I have had 

 to cut away considerable in the past two years in order to get between the 



