Some Grapk Troubles of Western New York. 433 



In favorable seasons this may not be very apparent, but in seasons 

 such as the past one, when the soil becomes dry and the quantity 

 of available food in consequence more restricted, the effects of 

 former croppings become visible upon lands which were not ex- 

 ceptionally rich in the first place. In the vineyard of Mr. S. 

 Codington, of Fredonia, N. Y., this view of the case was very 

 strongly emphasized. The vineyard is in the form of a square, and 

 I was told that there was a strip stretching diagonally across the 

 field from corner to corner, in which the vines shelled badly. Upon 

 closer examination the line of shelling seemed to extend squarely 

 across the vineyard in such a manner that about one-half shelled 

 very badly, the other half but little. The portion which shelled 

 the most was formerly used as a meadow and had been so used for 

 fully twenty years. The other part had been set in the place of 

 an old orchard which had been used as a cow pasture for more 

 than twenty-five years. The line separating the orchard from the 

 meadow could be traced plainly in the vineyard by the degree of 

 shelling. There can be no doubt that much of the shelling is due 

 to impoverished land. 



It is not common to find a vineyard which was set upon old 

 pasture or upon new land, that shells to any considerable extent ; 

 most of these vines hold their fruit well and the contrary is the 

 exception rather than the rule. 



Fortunately we have proof that in some cases, at least, potash 

 has stopped the shelling. But two examples can be here men- 

 tioned, but they are convincing. 



Geo. W. Marsh, of Portland, N. Y., had been troubled with 

 the shelling of his grapes for some years, on a rather low portion 

 of his vineyard. Potash in the form of kainit was applied in the 

 spring of 1894, at the rate of one pound per plant. This appli- 

 cation seemed to be heavy enough, for the leaves did not show the 

 ' ' blight ' ' during the following summer and the grapes did not shell 

 in the fall. M. I,. Taylor applied one ton of Canada hardwood ashes 

 upon his vineyard ; it adjoins that of Mr. Marsh and is upon the 

 same kind of land, but the applications were of practically no value. 

 If the analyses of Canada hardwood ashes were always uniform, 

 or if they invariably showed an abundant supply of potash, this 

 result could hardly be explained. But in view of the success 



