MAINE STATE SOCIETY. l^J 



^250; cost of the harder $100 to $125. My border is only 14 

 feet wide outside the house ; it should be 20 feet ; in which case 

 the vines could be more heavily laden without injury. No arti- 

 ficial heat is used ; some years ago I had a furnace in it, but 

 soon discontinued its use, as the grapes will ripen as well with- 

 out it, and the earlier matured will not here command a price 

 corresponding to the additional cost and trouble. Have 

 cropped the vines eight years; and consider 12 to 15 pounds 

 per vine a fair crop; with more ample range for the roots some- 

 thing more might be taken ; but the liability to overload the 

 vine is great, and if done, the injury is serious and lasting. I 

 take off three-fourths of the bunches as soon as formed, and thin 

 out the berries on the remainder, one-half to two-thirds, when 

 as large as peas. The varieties are Black Plamburg, say 

 three-fourths; most of the others are Chasselas; I had a dozen 

 other sorts, but they don't amount to much except for variety, 

 and have been mostly replaced with the above. Usual price in 

 September and October, 75 cents per pound. 



The first requisite to successful grape culture is a good bor- 

 der; say 20 to 25 feet wide, and four feet deep, well drained. 

 For materials, pasture turf, stable manure, and bones, are the 

 best. (Add one or two old horses, and any quantity of dogs, 

 that may well be spared from any neighborhood. — Committee.) 

 The next is a proper thinning out of the fruit, both of bunches 

 and berries. Let these be attended to, (with the necessary 

 pruning,) and an intelligent boy of ten or twelve years can easily 

 attend to all else." 



From the data above, it is fair to conclude that the entire 

 cost of a permanent erection, may be cancelled by the market 

 value of one crop of grapes. We have repeatedly been assured 

 by horticulturists that this accords with their experience. We 

 have often met with structures that answered well the purpose, 

 costing considerably less than either named above. In this 

 land of abundant and cheap building materials, with the Yankee 

 ingenuity of the people, (of whom it is said in California, that 

 every second man knows how to build a saw mill,) almost any 

 farmer or gardener and his sons may erect a grape house at a 

 trifling outlay, that will prove a valuable appendage to any 

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