'214: MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



mildew. Plant the grapes whole, in a good soil, rich, and mixed 

 with vegetable mould ; cover the grapes one inch ; if they are 

 planted in the autumn, which is the best mode, they will come 

 up freely in May ; they must be kept free from weeds, and 

 watered if the weather be dry. The vines which come up the 

 first year will usually be very robust, and you v/ill think you 

 are in the high road of success ; but these strong vines of the 

 first year will very generally prove barren. The second year 

 there will be a new crop of seedlings from the same sowing ; and 

 even in the third year they will continue to come up. These 

 seedlings of the second and third year will give you your 

 improved varieties. 



It is probably due to this fact that there have not been spon- 

 taneous improvements of our native grape. The vigorous 

 seedlings of the first year, which are nearer to the original type, 

 smotlicr and prevent the growth of the more feeble vines which 

 come up in the second and third years, and which alone bring 

 the improved type, which is a departure from the original, re- 

 quiring tlic hand of the horticulturist. Make room for the 

 second year's seedlings by removing the first year's crop ; do 

 this Avithout disturbing the seeds ; put a fork deep into the 

 ground in the early spring, when the ground is pretty wet and 

 soft, and gently loosen the earth and lift the vino you want to 

 remove carefully out the ground ; do this again at the end of 

 the second and even the third year, as the seeds often come up 

 even in the fourth year. It is of course better to sow the seeds 

 of the Concord grape, than to go back to the beginning and 

 sow the wild grape. 



William D. Brown, Chairman. 



to' 



WOPwCESTER NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



It cannot be otherwise than a source of peculiar gratification 

 to every lover of fine fruit — and who is not ? — to witness the 

 annually increasing display presented at our autumnal exhibi- 

 tions. The increase in quantity and variety of specimens of 

 the more valuable fruits affords substantial evidence of that 

 " good time coming," when Pomona's best productions, instead 



