11 



fruited the Wilder, but have never found it to bear satisfactorily. The bunches were 

 small, very showy, but not numerous. Those grapes have suffered from frosts. About 

 eight years ago the thermometer went down 20 degrees below zero, and they were so 

 injured by the frost that I never replanted them — I pulled them out. The price was a 

 little high, but not high enough to compensate for the loss in the quantity. The Dela- 

 ware requires a great deal of attention, and I think a man should have ten cents a pound 

 for it, and five cents for the Concord, if he takes into consideration the difference in the 

 cost of raising them. You cannot grow the quantity nor get the quality without a degree 

 of attention that very few are willing to give to grapes. In regard to the Delaware, we 

 have all been too ambitious to get quantity rather than to get quality, and our grapes 

 have not ripened well. If we would have the courage to go through our vineyards and 

 cut off about one- third of the Delaware grapes, and give them other attention — some 

 pruning, some pinching back — we would have better Delawares, and command higher 

 prices. Another grape that takes well in the market, an old known grape, one of our 

 first grapes, the Isabella. I think it has been very much neglected. I find that it pays 

 me well, in fact equal to any grape that I have. I find that every four or five years we 

 lose a portion of the vines by the frost ; but we can afford the loss. Last winter, a year 

 ago, my vines were pretty nearly destroyed, but they are coming on ngain, and next year 

 I shall have a good crop. There is no doubt that that grape will bear if properly taken care 

 of, and I think its quality is much superior to that of the Concord. I shipped a couple of 

 baskets to Glasgow, Scotland, a couple of years ago, and they went in very good condition. 

 I should like to see the Isabella more extensively planted than it is. The Creveling is a 

 grape that I am very much in love with. It is a good bearer, though the bunches are 

 scraggy ; but the quality of it is superior to that of any dark grape that I have ever 

 grown, and the hardiness of the wood is all that you can desire. I would like to see the 

 Hartford Prolific thrown out by the Society altogether, it is not fit for any decent Society 

 to have. People must have a queer taste if they like it. The quality of the lona is very 

 fine, but it does not seem to ripen very well with me. I am on the lake shore. Per 

 wine making the Clinton, I think, stands ahead of any dark grape that I know of. 



Mr. Dempsey. — There are a great many questions we should take into consideration 

 in connection with that of growing grapes for market. The particular market to which we 

 are sending our fruit is one thing that is very important to take into account. One market 

 will require a certain quality of grapes, while another market will submit to almost any- 

 thing. I find in marketing grapes that colour is a very important matter. Parties wishing 

 to decorate their tables with fruits like to have a red grape, and a white grape, and a black 

 grape, mixed on the table at the same time; Another question that we should not lose 

 sight of is with regard to the season of maturity. 1 find that some varieties that ripen 

 very early command a high price in the market, but a little later, when everything comes 

 into the market, we must have a very fine grape in order to get anything like a remunera- 

 tive price. Then we require a grape that will stand well — that will ship and keep. 

 This year the grapes that were in first with us were the Champion and the Worden. 

 They were sent into the market, and my little son, who was in charge of them, said, "Pa, 

 I have one request to make of you, and that is that you will never send me to market 

 with another Champion grape." I have thought that over, and if I can have any success 

 in grafting, I will never have another Champion in the market again. But the Worden 

 is in the market two weeks before the Concord. I do not know that it would produce 

 so many tons to the acre perhaps as the Concord, from the fact that it is not so rapid a 

 grower ; but I defy any man to go into a vinery and select the Concord from the Worden 

 from the appearance of the vine, either the foliage or the stock— they look alike exactly. 

 I could not do it, at all events. I think that the Worden is one of the most profitable 

 black grapes that we have. Moore's Early may be just as profitable — perhaps more pro- 

 fitable. On our grounds, a few days after our Delawares have set, we take the 

 precaution to thin the bunches ; we j ust walk along with a pair of scissors, and cut off 

 about two-thirds of the bunches, and I find that this not only increases the size of the 

 bunches that are left, but also causes them to mature earlier than the Concords. Nearly 

 all varieties of grapes are benefited by thinning, and very little decreased in weight ; 

 but any decrease that there is in this way is more than compensated for by the increased 



