MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIBTT. 179 



growth, quality, and productiyeness are kuovm in all the 

 regions roundabout, and the appearance of Mr. Haldane, with 

 a suspicious-looking package, at this meeting, was taken as an 

 eyidence that he was going to talk " Isabella." Consequently 

 Mr. Haldane was asked to give the merits of that grape. He 

 said he procured the root of his large yine, twentj-fiye years 

 ago, in Ada, of Esquire Khodes, and it has been in bearing 

 twenty years. His soil was a clay soil. Had cultiyated other 

 sorts — the Delaware, the Concord, the Hartford Prolific, the 

 Israella, the lona, the Sweetwater, and others — but preferred 

 the Isabella to all. It requires less care, and is not subject to 

 the diseases that afQict other kinds in this locality. "With 

 him, as a wine grape, the Isabella had been a great success, 

 and to connoisseurs, either for flattery or from some other 

 cause, had pronounced his wine as good as any domestic or 

 foreign wine of the same age. The yines occupy one-third of 

 his lot, which is sixty-six by one hundred and ten feet in size, 

 and now by the grading of the street, is quite altitudinous. 

 The ayerage yield has been worth from $250 to $300 per 

 annum. This included the amount sold, the amount consumed 

 at home, the amount giyen away, and the amount of wine 

 annually made. He had kept no account of the income, for 

 he valued it most for the use of family and friends. But for 

 the last ten years it had never failed of an annual crop — mak- 

 ing the income for that time $3,000, saying nothing of the 

 interest. He did not hesitate to recommend the Isabella for 

 this section in preference to any other kind — but always with 

 this proviso — that it should be protected from north and west 

 winds, both summer and winter, and with full exposure to the 

 sun, without obstruction from trees and shrubbery. He had 

 but one hobby, and that was in planting the grape. Planting 

 was of the first importance. Dig deep but plant shallow ; fill 

 the trench with grass, sods, chip-manure, bones, horns, and 

 hoofs, within one foot of the surface, then plant good roots on 

 the top with good, but not extra rich garden soil ; mulch in 



