Miscclhiiicotis. 405 



should be given the first year. Potatoes, beans or cowpeas can be grown 

 between the vines the first season. 



The young vine should go on a two-wire trelHs the second year, and 

 the wires should be stretched tight to prevent the vine sagging. A sag- 

 ging vine is unsightly, in the way of cultivation and hoeing, bears fruit 

 near the ground that it always gritty, does not ripen evenly, is more sub- 

 ject to black rot, and difficult to spray. The third year another wire should 

 be added, making three wires. At this age, with proper care and culti- 

 vation (cultivation should always be thorough j, the vines should yield 

 20 pounds each, worth here five cents per pound or $i to the vine. 

 Thorough spraying with Bordeaux is as essential to a good grape crop 

 as cultivation. In order to do perfect work with the sprayer and for the 

 grapes to set well and ripen evenly, the vines should by all means be 

 spread properly on, the trellis, and so fastened there that the wind cannot 

 bunch them. First spraying should be given when the buds begin to 

 swell ; second spraying when bloom drops, and third spraying when grapes 

 are the size of duckshot. Cultivation should be continued until grapes 

 commence to ripen. All weeds and grass should be kept from under the 

 trellis as they collect dew and dampness, which is favorable to black rot. 



To market the .grapes we use five and seven-pound grape baskets, 

 the five-pound selling for 20 cents, the seven-pound for 30 cents ; loose 

 in 10, 15 and 20-pound baskets at five cents per pound; 100-pound lots 

 $5. We have a home market second to none anywhere. Our vineyard 

 covers a little the rise of one-half acre, is six years old, and has yielded 

 the past four years $1,126 worth of grapes. While I make my vine- 

 yard very profitable I have all conditions in my favor: location, market,, 

 etc. I have omitted fertilizing, which is one important point. All leaf 

 mold, rich earth, decayed wood, etc., that we haul from the forests and 

 use as scratching material for the poultry goes into the vineyard when 

 it becomes soiled ; also the droppings of the fowls. — E. W. Geer, Farm- 

 ington. Mo., in Rural New Yorker. 



VARIOUS STRAINS OF WILD GOOSE PLUM. 



In your report of the discussions of the Kansas Horticultural Society, 

 in January issue. Professor Waugh and ^lajor Holsinger disagree a? 

 to Wild Goose plum. They are both correct. I wish to tell what I know- 

 about it, for the benefit of the horticultural world, because there is a con- 

 stant complaint of this plum. I am seventy-two years old. I don't know 

 the exact year when it was brought to notice by Air. Downer, but it was 

 about 1856. I lived at a small town in the southwest corner of Logan 



