264 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vines with horse and cultivator. Vines pruned this way have too many 

 small clusters. In the next two rows a bush was formed about one foot 

 above the ground. From this three or four of the strongest new canes 

 were left at each pruning, about four feet long; the last year's bearing 

 canes being cut away and other new canes being cut back to two buds. 

 This plan gives the best results. The clusters average better and the vines 

 seldom fail to produce good canes for the succeeding crop. If I were 

 starting a new vineyard to be trained to stakes, I should follow this man- 

 ner of pruning, but unless the ground is very steep and hilly I prefer 

 training to posts and wires. 



Three years ago I applied half a ton of bone meal to the poorest spots. 

 Fearing it would be washed away on the steep hillside if applied broad- 

 cast, it was put in holes made by a hop bar, one pint in each hole, or one 

 pound to the vine. I have been disappointed in the result. The bone is 

 still in the ground. The grape roots have clustered around it more or 

 less and perhaps benefit may come in the future. Nitrate of soda and 

 muriate of potash were applied on portions of the vineyard last spring, but 

 with questionable results. I have used wood ashes more or less at differ- 

 ent times, and have about come to the conclusion that the soil does not 

 need potash. A cat-hole near by had filled up with the wash from the 

 adjacent hillside. This dried mud was drawn up the hillside on a stone- 

 boat and spread among the vines with the best of results. When the 

 wood growth is deficient there is nothing like barnyard manure well 

 rotted, but it will be a year from time of application before you will get 

 any benefit; two much manure is a detriment. Stakes last from three to 

 six years. Every spring, in pruning, stakes which will push over or break 

 off are removed and new ones take their j)lace. I cut stakes eight feet 

 long. When they rot off they are still long enough to set again. After a 

 hard wind, just before the grapes ripen, many vines will blow down, and 

 if not picked up the grapes seldom ripen up well. 



With me the Champion, Hartford, and Ives yield about the same 

 quantity as Concord but the quality, especially of Champion, is inferior, 

 Moore's does not yield paying crops. Worden is almost like Concord, is 

 sweet as soon as colored, but will not keep so long. Brighton is the 

 sweetest grape, but an uncertain cropper. Martha and Lady have usually 

 borne fair crops and are of good quality. Salem, Wilder, Agawam, and 

 Lindley I usually put away in the cellar for winter. They have never 

 paid as market grapes. 



I am naturally fond of figures, and when planting this vineyard I opened 

 a separate account with it. In these figures no estimates have been made. 

 Every item of expense and every hour's work has been charged up. Of 

 course it would be impossible to enter into details in a short article like 

 this. To make it brief I have prepared a table giving the total annual 

 yield and sales, expense and profit of the two thousand vines. 



The land (2| acres) cost $175; the vines $100.64 (vines cost more ten 

 years ago than now); and the cost of plowing, setting, cultivating, etc., 

 was $42.94, making a total of $318.58 the first year. The expense for the 

 second year amounted to $7425, making the cost $392.83 to January 1, 

 1882, and no receipts: 



