132 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Several wardian cases of the owner's own make, well filled with rare exotics 

 of his own growing, were adorning the parlor windows, and still more, there 

 was found room on one side of the dwelling sufficient to attach a small con- 

 servatory, which this enthusiast was busy erecting for winter use, and all in- 

 cluded within the limits of an ordinary village lot of perhaps eight by twelve 

 rods in dimensions. 



From Mr. Guild's, in East Saginaw, to J. C. Zeigler's, Saginaw City, was our 

 next move. This garden was all occupied with hardy grapes, planted and 

 trellised in squares, each square or plat containing eight vines, or three on a 

 side including the corner ones, which were trellised at either angle, the dis- 

 tance apart, from vine to vine, being six feet, making the plats each twelve feet 

 square, and these squares separated by alleys six feet wide, an economical and 

 convenient plan for garden culture. The varieties in cultivation here were 

 Concord, Catawba (which is too far north to ripen well), Isabella, Clinton, and 

 a variety purchased of an Eastern vender for Israella at 81 per plant, which 

 proved in the hands of the committee to be Isabella. Three-fourths of these 

 vines at Mr. Zeigler's were Clintons, and grown expressly for making a sour 

 wine suitable to the German taste, samples of which were tested by the entire 

 committee and found fully up to the standard of this class of wines. Nothing 

 special in the cultivation or management in general from ordinary culture was 

 manifested here. Mr. Zeigler would do well, however, to adopt a more vigor- 

 ous system of pruning on the renewal plan. 



chilson's yixeyards. 



September 22d was agreed upon to complete the examination of the eastern 

 and southern portions of the State, and the vineyards of the Messrs. Chilsons 

 of Battle Creek were taken as the starting point. In company with Mr. Avery 

 we were joined at Galesburg by the chairman of our committee, Mr. Betts. 

 The Messrs. Chilson had entered a vineyard for profit in class 17, four years 

 planted and not less than one acre. In this vineyard were 2,900 vines planted 

 five years, eight by ten feet apart, on a somewhat sandy soil underlaid with 

 clay from one to two feet from the surface. The cultivation is very perfect, 

 and performed by plowing first in early spring, and afterwards through the 

 season with the two-horse wheel cultivator as often as once in ten or twelve 

 days up to the first of September. The location is flat, nearly level, slightly 

 descending to the north, about twenty feet above the Kalamazoo river, and dis- 

 tant one-half mile. The varieties were in the main Delaware and Concord, 

 a few Isabellas, some Dianas, which were found in greater perfection here than 

 elsewhere in our travels. They have also on trial several of the Hybrids, such 

 as Rogers' Nos. 4, 15, 19, 14, 22, etc. ISTos. 4 and 16 (Wilder and Agawam) 

 were notably the best on the list thus far ; but side by side with the Delaware 

 and Concord they hold no favorable comparison. About one-half of the 2,900 

 vines were Delawares, part trained to wire trellises and balance to stakes. 

 They use but two wires; they should have added another and run the canes 

 higher. In pruning they practice the renewal system, or, as it is frequently 

 termed, the long cane system. It appeared here best applied to the Coucord.. 

 The vines when set were very feeble plants, and an unfavorable season caused 

 many failures in the plat; the places have been filled since, causing an uneven, 

 and somewhat unfavorable appearance, many of the vines not yet in full 

 bearing, but enough were to stamp this vineyard, for this season at least, the 

 most productive as Avell as profitable of any in its class. Xowhere have we 



