STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 419 



Mr. Grimes. What do you think of common wood ashes and lime 

 as a fertilizer for grapes? 



Mr. Rogers. I think you have lime enough in your soil here with- 

 out anything added. Wood ashes, as a general thing, add vigor to 

 the growth. If you want to experiment with them at all, do it very 

 gradually and with very few, and do not use too many ashes. I once 

 tried half a bushel to thirty vines, planted in a row, six feet apart. 

 The peduncle became so weak it wouldn't support itself, and my grapes 

 dropped from the vine. The vines made an extraordinary growth the 

 first year, and the next I had a very fine crop of fruit. If you experi- 

 ment with wood ashes, take a few vines and put on different quantities 

 and notice results. If applied too heavily it will require a careful 

 system of summer pruning, as it excites the growth too late. Its 

 first effect is to make the crop earlier, although its latter effect is to 

 show itself in early ripening about the second year. 



Mr. Harris. You advise not to cover the vines until early winter 

 sets in? 



Mr. Rogers. That is the rule. If you cover the vine, never cover 

 while there is any danger of the rotting of the bud by warm weather 

 taking place, and don't let the cane become soaked with water. Never 

 permit water to stand and ice to form around the collar of a plant, for 

 it is almost sure to kill any vine or any Iruit tree— it stops the 

 circulation. 



Mr. Roberts. Would it be advisable, in setting vines, to put bones 

 and old leather under them, and would that be of any benefit? 



Mr. Rogers. Do you mean in amateur culture or commercial? 



Mr. Roberts. In either. 



Mr. Rogers. In commercial practice it will be well to experiment, 

 if it don't cost too much for labor. To make a trench, take large 

 ones and pave the entire bottom, and on top of that put some bone- 

 dust. That is done a great deal. One of the most successful amateurs 

 I know of digs down two and a half feet deep, paves with bones, and 

 on top of that puts about ten or fifteen pounds of bone-dust mixed 

 with earth. He raises the finest grapes I know of, but the expense 

 is too great in commercial culture. 



Mr. Harris inquired if burning a vineyard would not destroy the 

 insects, and if it would not be well to plant again at a distance of half 

 a mile to avoid the mildew? 



Mr. Rogers. I don't think a distance of half a mile would be suffi- 

 cient, for experiments in New Jersey have shown [that mildew will 



