WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 141 



A neio;hboring plat is in the same condition. These growers say it rots 

 worse than Concord, when they get any at all. Location has much to do 

 with such results, but I insist it is not safe for us to recommend it for general 

 culture. 



Mr. Phillips: I think the quality of the Niagara better than that of the 

 Concord, and it was so considered at the meetings of the American society. It 

 has sold very high in the market, even outselling Catawba. I not only con- 

 sider it superior in quality to Concord, but prefer it above any of the Cali- 

 fornia grapes. I have never before heard rot or mildew charged against it. 



H. U. Hayes of Talmadge, Ottawa county: I have nothing to say against 

 the Niagara. I set 500 vines in 18S2 and got 11,650 net from them, up to 

 date. 1 have had no winter-killing; they are in fine condition now; not a 

 bud was dead this spring. The vines are on high land, a clay loam soil, and 

 mercury went ten degrees below, last winter, on the hill. Some vines are 

 sixty feet lower than that point, but are in perfect order now. I set 3,000 

 more this spring. I got ten cents per pound for last year's crop. Porous 

 soil is not good for the Niagara. My place is twenty miles from the lake. I 

 cut back it) July, do not allow the vines to over-bear, and have always had 

 good results. 



A. C. Merritt: I have seen several vineyards of Niagaras out of condition, 

 but always found a mflScient' reason for it. I set mine five years ago, in two 

 lots. In the location I thought the best they were a complete failure, 

 although great pains were taken. Why they failed I do not know. It may 

 have been the lake winds. In the other place I did not lay the vines down. 

 I do not want vines that can not stand up and take care of themselves. But 

 there they have been successful. They were set on ordinary soil and not 

 cultivated as well as I would do if beginning anew. I sold $985 worth of 

 fruit last year from less- than 600 vines. They have never been protected at 

 all. But last spring (1886) I left too much wood and permitted them to 

 overbear. Hence all present damage to the vines I attribute to my own 

 neglect. Mr. Merritt highly cotnmended Mr. Woodward and other members 

 of the Niagara Grape Co., as to their personal characters, being well 

 acquainted with them. 



L. H. Wilcox: The Niagara has some good points and some poor ones. 

 We at Benton Harbor cannot commend it. It winter- kills and so does not 

 yield well. But in the market is the best of all grapes. 



President Phillips: We like it in Ottawa county because we can grow it; 

 you in Berrien county dislike it only for the opposite reason. 



W. A. Brown: I think if planted on high land about Benton Harbor it 

 would be successful. 



J. Lanuin: The members of the Niagara Grape Co. are gentlemen, and 

 are always more liberal than the terms of their contract. The Niagara grape 

 is a magnificent grower and I believe it to be hardy. With me it rotted a 

 little last year. Mercury did not go as low last winter as it did the Avinter 

 preceding; yet my vines, which went through the former season unharmed, 

 were in the latter damaged. This result is due, I think, to peculiarities of 

 season. Last October there were two weeks of very warm weather. I had 

 pinched back my vines early and a second time; and I think the wood was so 

 ripe that in the late and warm weather the buds started and were killed to such 

 an extent that I shall have but half a crop this season. But, as the opposite 

 of this, to test the hardiness of the Niagara, I in tlie season of 1885 trained a 



