876 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



of grapes must be considered excessive, so much so iis to 

 endanger the ability of the plants to sustain future crops, 

 unless the capacity of tlie soil shall prove decidedly greater 

 than its appearance would indicate. 



Your committee take pleasure in excepting from these 

 remarks the vineyard of Mr. David Robertson, of Grand 

 Eapids, who, by means of a thorough system of summer 

 pruning, is enabled to produce results of a highly satisfactory 

 character, especially so far as the size of both berry and bunch 

 are concerned. This, to be sure, is done at the expense of 

 quantity ; but it is believed by your committee that such 

 deficiency will be found to be more than compensated, even in 

 the pecuniary results, by the improved size and quality of the 

 crop, to say nothing of the vigor of the plants thus husbanded 

 for the benefit of succeeding crops. Your committee, how- 

 ever, take occasion to remark upon the possibility, not to say 

 danger, of carrying this process of summer pruning to such an 

 excess as to compromise the ultimate vigor and health of the 

 plants, — a remark ventured the more freely since vineyardists 

 of experience and standing seem to be arriving at the conclu- 

 sion that our rampant American varieties do not bear the close 

 cutting so i^erfectly adapted to the habit of the European 

 eorts. 



Your committee were also highly gratified with the condi- 

 tion in which the peach orchards entered for competition were 

 generally found. In a few cases, a purpose was manifest to 

 keep the heads well up for the purpose of facilitating culture 

 with the plow, — a mistake which, we apprehend, no planter 

 will be likely to repeat after experience with one plantation. 



With the large number of entries of plantations of the 

 grape and peach, widely separated from each other in many 

 cases, and often on widely difierent soils, your committee have 

 found it difficult to discriminate with certainty between oases 

 often almost equally meritorious, and they deeply regret their 

 inability, under the rules of the society, to award premiums 

 in many cases that command their unqualified admiration. 



