STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 417 



Mr. Smith said that he considered that a green Concord was 

 about as good as a ripe Janesville. 



Mr. Gilpatrick. I have never failed in ripening Concord 

 grapes in the twenty years I have grown them. I cultivate early 

 and thoroughly, and never have lost a crop of Concord grapes. 

 But when I do not cultivate for two weeks I find them behind. 

 I have given my grapes a great deal of cultivation. My expe- 

 rience seems to have been different from anyone else. 



Mr. Smith. We have only lost one year since I have been in 

 the State, and that was last year. 



Mr. Grimes. If I was going to start a vineyard I would jjut 

 out half Concords, but I should have more faith in cultivation 

 than most men. I know a man that raised grapes on ground that 

 was eleven feet subsoil — bones, horse manure and everything 

 else. The ground was worked eleven feet, ^o water was used. 

 Cultivation was once in two weeks. That man put out a vine- 

 yard to have grapes to eat. When I was there a few years ago 

 they were the best crop of grapes I ever saw. I have never lost 

 a grape yet. I have been planting the Eogers grape ever since 

 I have been here. In setting out grapevines I would have the 

 ground worked three feet. Good cultivation will pay. In Mas- 

 sachusetts, where the land was cultivated two, three, or four feet, 

 the crop paid just in proportion to the depth. 



REMARKS OF JOHN S. HARRIS. 



Mr. John S. Harris, of La Crescent, Minn., said: The best 

 soil for grapes is what we call a sandy loam, that has a certain 

 amount of clay in it. The next best is a clay loam. A man at 

 La Crosse had a strip twelve feet wide, on the north side of his 

 garden, dug out two feet deep, and put in fertilizers, and the 

 grapes grew well, but you cannot succeed with very sandy land 

 on a side hill. If grapes are put on a sandy hill they will fail. 

 Where the soil is sandy it is absolutely necessary to put on bones, 

 etc., occasionally, as a top dressing. There are a great many 

 who may dig a hole just as small as they can work in, two or three 

 feet deep in the hardpan, fill up with fertilizers, and then set out 

 the vines. They will grow a year, or perhaps two, but after that 

 they will grow less and less each year, and finally will stop grow- 

 ing entirely. In setting out vines do not dig the vines any deeper 

 than the ground has been stirred, so that the roots will start 

 right and get an easy living in clean cultivation. There is more 

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