STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 45 



careful comparisons, I pronounced it Hartford Prolific. The fruit of it 

 and the Hartford were tasted by many in my presence, and none could 

 find a dirterence. One of your committee found a very slight difierence 

 between it and the Hartford, as grown many miles away, and on different 

 soil, but certainly the ditlerence is not distinct enough to add another 

 name to our long list of fruits. 



Croton and Senasqua. — 1 found these growing nowhere except on 

 mv own grounds, where they have shown the very best of promise, but 

 we can know but little from one summer's growth. Having seen and 

 tasted the fruit of both, I know them to be grapes of remarkable good- 

 ness, if we can 'get them. 



Eumelan and Walter — Were seen at only one point. There they 

 certainl}- gave no signs of success in tlie West. The fruit of both is 

 veiy good, and it is to be hoped that they will succeed in some localities, 

 if not generally. 



Lacon. — This has been fruited this season from Boston to Kansas in 

 many different places, and the highest praise has been given to it by 

 every one, as to the goodness of the fruit, and the health of the vine. 

 The vine is not as vigorous in growth as some, nor so productive; yet it 

 has perfect health and hardiness. The cluster is too small for a first-class 

 market grape ; flavor bcst^ as a Labrusca. There are many other varieties 

 that, perhaps, I should name, but I fear to tire your patience. My 

 excuse is that I did not find any that I thought we had much use for, 

 except those named. 



I fruited this season, for the first time, a number of black seedlings of 

 the Concord, but found no merits in them but what we already possessed 

 in older varieties. Also a very pretty white one that utterly refused to 

 ripen. 



With a few general remarks upon the culture and pruning of the vine 

 I will close. 



Land, if prepared well enough to produce a good crop of wheat or 

 corn, is well enough prepared to plant grape-vines on. If the land is rich 

 enough to produce a very great crop of corn it is too rich for vines, causing 

 too great and succulent a growth of wood. Land that will produce a 

 little less than an average crop of corn, if dry, and with a porous sub-soil, is 

 about right for most of our varieties. I have planted many vines in about 

 our poorest Western clays and sands, without fertilizing them in any way 

 other than by cultivation, and always succeeded in growing healthy vines 

 and large and perfect crops of fruit. It is hard for me to conceive of a 

 Western soil too poor naturally to make a successful vineyard, provided 

 it is dry and not poisoned by mineral matters. A clean mixture of gravel 

 and coarse sand would be the only one I would fear, and even this could 

 be made perfect by giving it heavy dressings of clayey loam. I have 

 never yet seen an instance in the West where ground had been trenched 

 two to three feet deep, heavily manured, and the manure trenched in, but 

 resulted in a disastrous failure when planted with vines, and I have seen 

 many such experiments. What gi^eat good could possibly be obtained by 

 the deep trenching of our Western soils? Would they not at the end of 



