214 State Horticultural Society. 



which we have not found yet, and perhaps never will find. Now I will 

 say, for family use, grapes should be put in sacks soon after blooming. 

 They keep much better and will not be touched by birds and insects. 



Last, but not least, is proper pruning. I see so many grape vines 

 loaded with wood, perhaps ten years old or more, and all young wood cut 

 off lying on the ground every spring, that I feel sorry for the grape 

 vines and the man who did the pruning. They call it spur pruning, but 

 that is the old way. The "billy goat" that went into the vineyard and 

 helped himself to the vines taught us that by cutting away about half 

 of the wood every spring we have better grapes, while it keeps the vines 

 vigorous. Grapes will only grow on one-year-old wood, so the less old 

 wood the better. 



BURROUGHS' SUCCESS WITH GRAPES. 



John Burroughs' son, Julian, tells in the September "Country Calen- 

 dar" of the veteran naturalist's successful fruit-growing: 



It was not until the mid-eighties that my father really became a grape- 

 grower. He was at that time in ill health. His experiments with general 

 fruits had been failures, and the example of a neighbor, who was grow- 

 ing fancy grapes successfully, decided him to become a grape grower. 

 Accordingly, he bought nine acres from an adjoining farm to his home 

 on the Hudson, making seventeen in all. With the exception of the gar- 

 den and lawns about the house, this was all set out in grapes. 



Growing grapes exclusively, and on such a small scale, we have found 

 it necessary to select only fancy varieties, and to make these truly "gilt- 

 edged." This course is one of the reasons for our success. 



There is nearly every year a market "glut" of common fruit of all 

 kinds, from oranges to strawberries, much of which does not pay trans- 

 portation charges. At the same time fancy fruit, arriving in market in 

 good condition, always brings a "living price." The exceptions to this 

 are few, indeed. Any man with the courage of his convictions, suitable 

 soil and intelligence can always make a living by growing fruit, pro- 

 vided he will grow only the very finest. The days when a fortune was 

 to be made out of grapes are probably over — had my father gone into 

 fancy grape-growing ten years sooner he could have become wealthy 

 at it. There is still a fortune to be made in peaches wherever one has 

 the land to grow them. A cold, northwest mountain side, of new soil, 

 some kind of an especially built plow for plowing away deep snows; the 

 right kind of peaches and you have about the best of the honest "get- 

 rich-quick" schemes. — Prairie Farmer. 



