394 STATE rOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



PLAXTIXG YOUXG GRAPE VINES. 



There arc two errors whicli it is well for novices in planting grape vines to 

 avoid. One is, the supposition that a grape vine will grow anywhere, and that 

 it is only necessary to stick it in the ground, leave it without further attention 

 to the fostering care of Nature, and calmly await fruit in due season. The 

 other error is, in supposing the planting and growing of a grape vine to be a 

 great mystery, involving extraordinary preparation of the soil, and a wonderful 

 degree of care afterward, attainable only by the most skillful. The truth, as 

 in most cases, Avill be found between the extremes. The wants of a grape vine 

 are not many; and the amount of care and skill required to grow it success- 

 fully, is not great. As a rule, it is better not to plant young grape vines in the 

 immediate vicinity of large, old established vines, for the ground is sure to be 

 preoccupied by the roots of the older vines, and the soil comparatively ex- 

 hausted by the elements specially necessary for the growth of the younger plant. 

 The worst place for a young vine is the position where an older vine has died 

 out; and young plants in such situations generally fail, for the obvious 

 reason that, in addition to the exhaustion of tlic soil, the influences that de- 

 stroyed the older vine will operate even more strongly against the younger and 

 weaker one. I would never plant a young vine to replace an old one in the 

 same place, without digging out the old soil and replacing it with fresh and 

 lively earth in which grape vines had not been grown. A place where the soil is 

 full of the roots of growing trees or shrubs is not a good one for the planting of 

 young vines, though the stronger growing kinds sometimes succeed pretty well 

 after they are fairly established, and hold their own with other surrounding 

 plants and trees. The best soil for grape growing I have found to be a sound 

 gravelly clay loam, sufficiently fertile to bring a good corn crop; and suffi- 

 ciently rolling to prevent water from ever standing upon it. In planting, it is 

 well always to make the holes pretty large, and have the young plants standing 

 in a vessel of water, so that the roots are wet when put in the ground. The 

 earth will at once adhere more closely to the roots, and the growth be more 

 prompt and certain than if they were planted dry. The roots should be spread 

 out to their full length, the points inclining a little downv.-ard ; put in iino 

 earth from the surface next the roots, and then fill up the holes, pressing the 

 ground moderately around the plant, and nothing more is necessary except to 

 keep the surface mellow and free from weeds, to insure a good growth. Except 

 in case of extraordinary drouth, no after watering is necessary; but should this 

 be needful, it is better to remove a little of the soil around the plant, and after 

 watering, hoe it back again, leaving the ground bare. 



Geo. W. Campbell. 



Delaware, Ohio. 



FALL OR SPRING FOR TRANSPLANTING? 



We have never discovered any reason why a })lant, let it be an herbaceous 

 plant, a shrub, vine, or tree, should be transplanted in the fall rather than in 

 the spring for the climate of New York and north of it. When removed 

 from one place to another in the same grounds and care is observed to preserve 

 a ball of earth, or without the ball of earth, all the roots and fibers intact, it 



