126 STATE HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 



Mr. Chidestek made a demonstration of his method of pruning. He 

 grows two canes and trains them eight feet each. These are cut back to 

 two buds each season, and the fruit and new growth so controlled as to 

 give free air circulation. Here at Lawton, he said, he found very long 

 branches, four or five buds being left for each season's growth, which 

 causes the branches bearing fruit to drop together, entirely covering the 

 fruit on the lower canes. He uses two wires, sixteen inches apart, the 

 upper one six feet from the ground; rows twelve feet apart, and grows 

 about seventy-five pounds of fruit per vine when so much can be 

 obtained. He would not set vines closer than this. 



The third paper upon the general subject of grape-culture, was by Mr. 

 Wm. a. Smith of Benton Harbor, and was read by the secretary: 



GRAPE CULTURE IS OF WANING INTEREST. 



I think the subject of grape culture, at this meeting, will have more 

 than its due share of consideration. When veteran horticulturists are 

 summoned from Texas, New York, and all along this shore (myself 

 omitted), to teach our friends at Lawton how to grow grapes, it looks a 

 good deal like carrying coal to Newcastle, or sand to the Sahara. They 

 have " caught on " to this business with a full flush, and we will do well if 

 we follow in their wake. Why, from the reports of their shipments for a 

 year or two past, they will soon have to have additional railway facilities 

 and special rail service to carry their fruit to market. 



Again, the matter of grape culture is no longer a mystery. Any novice, 

 if he has energy enough to yawn before sunrise, can succeed if he will. 

 The evidence of this fact is seen every year by the almost unlimited 

 amount of this fruit in all our principal markets, and the small markets 

 are by no means neglected. I know of no fruit that will respond more 

 readily and liberally than the grape. It will grow and flourish in any soil 

 that is dry enough, and mature in any climate that has heat and sunshine 

 enough. Like the peach, it is a warm-blood fruit and must have plenty 

 of air and sunshine. In cultivating the grape for commercial purposes 

 where labor is high and land is valuable, the utmost economy is necessary 

 in order to make both ends meet. It takes but a few years to start a vine- 

 yard and have it in bearing condition; and, when once in bearing, it may 

 be kept so for a generation or two, or longer, by proper usage and care, 

 and, withal, requires perhaps less fertilizing to grow good crops than any 

 of our native fruits. The fruit itself is nearly all water or fluid, and hence 

 does not exhaust the soil like many other fruits. Old vines, if desirable 

 and valuable, may, if circumstances require, be removed, even after hav- 

 ing been in full bearing for a dozen years or more, to a new location, by 

 proper root-pruning and cutting back, and brought into full bearing in 

 two or three years. I have harvested good crops of Delawares the second 

 year after transplanting, yet the Delaware is not a strong grower. 



