140 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vines to these two wires, leaving two arms on each vine. When arms have 

 made a growth of four or five feet, pinch them back. In trimming, the 

 coming fall or following spring, cut back each arm to five or six buds. The 

 fourth yo'dv, the vines having now become strong, leave the arms longer — say 

 eight or nine buds, which is sufficient wood for a full crop of fine fruit of the 

 best quality. Let me caution all to never overload a vine, as tliis is one of 

 the greatest curses of the vineyard. If at the end of the fourth year your 

 vineyard is uneven, some vines weak, such vines should be cut back in pro- 

 portion as they are Aveak ; and manure well — do not let them bear much if 

 any. Do this from year to year, and in a few years your vines will all be up 

 to the same standard in strength and productiveness, and will please your eye 

 by their beauty and gladden your heart by giving abundant proof of the suc- 

 cess of your labors. 



For vineyards, all things considered, I regard unleached ashes the best fer- 

 tilizer known. A ton of hardwood ashes contains 320 lbs. of potash, worth 

 $16, 105 pounds of phosphoric acid (insoluble) worth $5.25. Omitting all 

 the other ash constituents, which have some value of themselves, the potash 

 and phosphoric acid of a ton of such ashes are worth $21.25, or nearly six 

 times the value of a ton of fresh horse dung. 



Summer pruning, also the importance of handling and marketing our 

 grapes in the best condition, so as to bring us the best returns, the length of 

 this article will not permit me to take up fully; but I will say in a word, it 

 is my practice to pinch back the bearing shoots to within two or three leaves 

 of the fruit. As to marketing, pack well and send none but good fruit to 

 market. And I wish to say, and also to impress it upon the mind and memory 

 of every grape grower present, that there is nothing so disastrous to the 

 grape market as the shipping of green grapes early in the season. It is sure 

 to bring prices down to a low point, and once down it is hard to bring them 

 up again. The consumer who has been waiting patiently for the grape 

 season to open, buys them with the expectation of finding them ripe and 

 delicious; but instead finds them sour and unfit to eat. The consequence is 

 it will be some time before he will try his chance again. Thus the market 

 becomes seriously damaged at the outset. 



ON THE SAME SUBJECT. 



Replying to a question by Mr. Lannin, Mr. Phillips said he pinches back 

 the new growth as soon as the grapes begin to form; and further, to pinch 

 off all superfluous shoots and keep this up as you would in raising peach 

 trees. 



W. A. Smith: It is noticeable that^Ir. Phillips recommends but three va- 

 rieties. Ten or twelve years ago there was a great boom for the lona. I was 

 one of its victims; for, while the lona is one of our finest grapes, it is a 

 failure nineteen times out of twenty. Of Mr. Phillips' three sorts there is 

 but one I can recommend — the Worden. It has not been grown as long as 

 the Concord, but is promising. There is at present a great boom for the 

 Niagara and it sells for great prices. But is it safe for this society to recom- 

 mend it for general culture? Its quality is not better than that of the Con- 

 cord, ithaa not proved hardy, and it is not free from rot. I knew of a vins- 

 yard of four acres of three-year-old Niagaras that last fall were in perfect 

 order. Now only one in ten rods is alive and the rest are dead to the ground. 



