314 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



doing anything for a year or more, and, rather than lose them, 

 I thought I would go to work and mulch them. The land was 

 quite steep and was washing badly, and I made up my mind I 

 would mulch them. The following winter, after the dry summer 

 of 1889, I think, I mulched quite heavily with stable manure, and 

 as a result they picked up a good deal the next year. It was 

 mulched in such shape that I could work it into the soil, and it 

 changed the whole character of the land; instead of being a 

 land that would wash badly, it became much like a new forest 

 mould, resembling land first broken up. I mulched it again 

 last season, because I was afraid to trust it, and the result was 

 that we got a very good crop of grapes, indeed. I do not want 

 you to understand that I would recommend mulching grapes; 

 I think, on clayey land it might oe a very bad thing to do. I 

 should not recommend anybody to do it, unless they were very 

 careful about it, but if you have a gravelly soil and cannot grow 

 them any other way, I would recommend you to set the grapes 

 deep and mulch them. There is this objection to it, especially 

 in clay land, that you make the ground very cold and bring 

 the roots near the surface. I am afraid that if they are too 

 near the surface, they will be liable to kill some winter when 

 we don't have much snow. But, between growing them or not 

 on a gravelly knoll I would mulch them. In answer to Mr. 

 Brackett's questions whether I would recommend him to mulch 

 his vineyard on such good grape land as he has, I will say that 

 I do not believe I would do it. 



Mr. Murray: You could also use stable manure on the 

 gravelly land — I mean more than on the clayey soil. 



Prof. Greene: Yes, and if your land is run out you can get 

 belter results. I have had the fertilizing business drilled into 

 me. I have talked potash and magnesium time and time again, 

 but when I came West and tried to follow out what I learned in 

 the East, it didn't work. In Massachusetts and in, practically, 

 ail the states east of Ohio, and even in parts of Ohio you get 

 the same result when you use potash salts. They recommend 

 potash salts on land with very good results, but here we get 

 almost no results at all. 



Mr. Murray: And how about nitrate of silver? 



Prof. Greene: It has given wonderful results in stimulating 

 the leaf growth. Of course, any of these nitrogenous salts are 

 especially stimulating to the leaf growth. For that reason 

 they are not desirable for use on grape vines. On spinach and 

 like plants in the spring of the year, upon which it is desirable 



