170 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Dec, 1886 



Oct, 1887 $0 



Oct., 1888 



March, 1888 



April, 1888 3 



June, 1888 2 



May, 1889 



Nov., 1889 



June, 1890 



April, 1891 



June, 1892 2 



I have averaged the 11 reports, and the wholesale price paid would be 

 $2.60 per pound, the retail |4,39. I think I have shown you that my 

 assertions about quality and high price are not without proof. 



In the gardens of Queen Victoria there is a glass house seventy-five 

 feet long, and only one vine in it, which is called the Hampton Court 

 vine, and is of the Black Hamburg variety. It fills the whole house, is 

 said to produce over three thousand clusters annually, and is over 100 

 years old. I think if the fox, as reported in the fable, had seen and 

 tasted some of these grapes he would not have made up such a wry face 

 and said they were sour and not worth the trouble of obtaining. 



Experience of thirty-eight years in this branch of horticulture has been 

 a very great source of pleasure to me, to watch the opening of the buds 

 and the growth till the maturing of this most delicious of all fruits. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. W. F. Bird of Ann Arbor: Coming in rather late, I have not heard 

 whether the subject of grafting has been treated or not, and I would 

 like the best method of grafting grapes. 



Mr. Sigler: I have grafted grapes and everything else, almost, even 

 to the cacti. I think the best time to graft grapes is after the sap has 

 ceased to flow, after the vines have begun to leave out. That has been 

 my experience. If you can, keep your scions from starting until after 

 the leaves appear. Then cut them off below the surface of the ground, 

 and set them the same as you set a scion in an apple tree. I have grafted 

 before the sap started and had good luck, but not as a general thing. 



Mr. Morrill: Is it more desirable to change an unprofitable variety 

 that way, than to take it out and set anew ? 



Mr. Sigler: Yes, you get grapes the second year. I set one Black 

 Hamburg variety into a White, and it grew 360 feet of wood the first 

 year. This fact was published in the New York Gardener, some twenty 

 years ago, I think. That vine is still living and doing well. 



Mr. Chidester: Have you had any experience in grafting in out-door 

 work? I have a peculiar saw that saws two cuts at the same time, and 

 a small chisel that makes a smooth cut, so that it does not require a blade 

 to introduce the graft. I have found it more successful than to try to 

 split the cleft, because a grapevine does not split easily, and when it is 



