New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 513 



over a sufficient number of years to permit of more than these gen- 

 eral statements in regard to maturity. In this region where time 

 of maturity is so important because of danger of early frost to 

 late-ripening sorts and where it is often desirable to retard the 

 harvest time of early grapes, it is a matter of prime importance 

 to know accurately what influence grafting on various stocks will 

 have on this life event. It is hoped that an experiment under way 

 may furnish more definite information. 



Behavior of vines. — It is not fair to measure the effects of a 

 treatment by the crop alone unless the whole life of the plant is 

 considered, when, of course, the chief criterion is crop perform- 

 ance. But in a period of so few years as the one in which this 

 experiment has been in progress it is quite possible for plants to 

 have a high record of fruitfulness but at the expense of vigor and 

 longevity of plant. It might well be expected that grafting grapes 

 of one species on the roots of another would have very pronounced 

 effects on the resulting plant. Thus, amount and character of 

 annual growth, size, color and sparsity of foliage, diameter of 

 trunk, together with the effects on such life events as leafing-time, 

 blooming-time, fruiting-time and fall of leaf, are indispensable to 

 a full knowledge of any treatment of vines. The behavior of the 

 vines may follow from the mechanical eft'ects of grafting, which is 

 very improbable ; or from adaptability, or lack of it, of variety or 

 stock to the environment ; or to congeniality or lack of it between 

 stock and cion. The last two factors are worth discussing. 



Adaptability of stoch and vai'iety to the Chautauqua Belt condi- 

 tions. — The soil, climate and all conditions of environment must 

 be favorable to both stock and cion in a grafted vineyard — the 

 less favorable the poorer the grapes. All the varieties chosen for 

 this experiment, with the exception of Goff, were sorts that are 

 grown in the Chautauqua Belt and known to be adapted to the 

 region except in certain characters which it was hoped would do 

 better under grafting. The stocks- were untried, but the adapt- 

 ability of stocks that come from largely grown species that have 

 been -thoroughly tested elsewhere can be forecasted. The stocks 



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