GRAPES 315 



to force a large leaf growth, nitrate of soda has a most wonder- 

 ful effect in giving an early leaf crop. It is the thing to use 

 for that purpose, but it should not be used on grapes. I do 

 not think there is any need of buying high-priced fertilizers in 

 our state, because we have such a great source of cheap 

 manure. We hav^e lots of stable manure and we have tankage. 

 Tankage can be bought at New Brighton for twelve dollars a 

 ton. It is perfectly dry — you can keep it in a perfectly dry 

 room, and there will be but little odor to it. It is the cheapest 

 fertilizer I know of. I would not advise anybody to buy the 

 nitrates and those compounds which are high-priced, just be- 

 cause some seedsman or fertilizer manufacturer puts them on 

 the market. 



Dr. Frisselle: How would it do to put on wood ashes? 



Prof. Greene: It would be a very good fertilizer, indeed. 



Mr. Wilcox: I want to ask Prof. Greene if it would not be a 

 very cheap way to product phosphoric acid and potash to burn 

 bones? 



Prof. Gr.eene: There is no potash in the ashes of bones. 



Mr. Wilcox: I mean by burning the bones and mixing with 

 the acid. 



Prof. Greene: Yes, but you would lose your nitrogen by 

 burning them. 



Mr. Wilcox: But how -about using them for manure for 

 grapes? 



Prof. Greene: If I used the bones I would never burn them, 

 if I could get a grinder such as Mr. Brackett has to grind 

 bones for his hens. I would grind them and mix them up with 

 a little wood ashes, or put them in the hot stable manure where 

 they would ferment and become soluble; in that way they 

 would be much more valuable. 



Mr. Morris: I have several thousand vines growing 

 at Minnetonka. Some of the ground is very sandy. Two 

 years ago I fertilized them. All the growers discouraged 

 me at the time. At the time the American Association of Nurs- 

 erymen was in session, Mr. George S. Joslyn of New York, 

 one of the best posted men in the United States in vine grow- 

 ing, said that he put the common manure on his vines all the 

 time and worked it into his soil well, and it didn't hurt them a 

 bit. Two years ago I put on from four to six inches on some 

 light soil that I had, working it in, and the result was that 

 vines that had never amounted to anything before that and 



