346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



general character and quality of crops so far as the relative 

 proportions of some of their proximate organic constituents, 

 as albuminoids, starch, or sugar, are concerned. Even the 

 peculiar form in which potaJi, &c, has been applied, is 

 known to exert a decided influence on the production of one 

 or more organic constituents of plants. Judging from our 

 past experience in general farm-management, it seems proper 

 to assume that much benefit may accrue to fruit-culture and 

 horticulture generally by studying the relations which exist 

 between the composition of the soil and the ash-constituents 

 of the fruits grown upon it. A rational system of manuring 

 our fruit-bearing plants requires that kind of information 

 for its foundation. It is quite certain that the practice of 

 restoring to the soil, in suitable form and in due time, those 

 constituents which the fruits abstract, will give us larger 

 crops by stimulating a vigorous condition of the entire 

 plant. A strong, healthy plant is, of course, better able to 

 overcome interior local disorders, and to resist externally 

 injurious influences more successfully, than feeble specimens. 



To contribute something to the chemistry of fruit-culture, 

 a series of field experiments with grape-vines and other 

 fruits was undertaken at the Agricultural College, for the 

 purpose of testing the action of certain special fertilizers on 

 their productiveness in the quantity and quality of the fruit, 

 and to ascertain whether a favorable change in their quality 

 is accompanied with a definite alteration in the relative 

 proportion of their mineral or ash constituents. 



The variety first selected was the Concord grape, which ori- 

 ginated from the common wild purple grape ( Vitis Labrusca). 



The vines under treatment are growing in three plots in 

 the college vine}"ard, located upon a hill sloping toward the 

 south, and protected upon the north by a heavy growth of 

 timber. The vines were planted in 1868 and 1869, and 

 received no manure except wood-ashes, which had been 

 ♦applied some years previous to these experiments. Each 

 plot consists of three rows of Concord vines, and six in each 

 row. Fertilizers were first applied in the spring of 1873. 



The plots were numbered from the west side, and fertil- 

 izers applied numbered in the same way. In 1874 twelve 

 wild vines of the purple and white varieties of Vitis La- 

 brusca were taken from near a pond in the vicinity, and 



