198 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



ance. The Green Mountain is a new, early, white grape of fine quality and a 

 good producer ; it is one of the most promising of the white grapes of recent 

 introduction. The Mills grape is another new introduction ; it is black and 

 showy, but not healthy, and I have never been able to produce a single perfect 

 bunch. 



Fertilizers for Grapes. — Previous crops. — In planting a new vineyard, 

 we can select rough land, full of roots, etc., providing that by stirring the soil the 

 roots have well decayed. Land can have been planted one year to clover, lucerne, 

 sainfoin, and the like, or even with hoed crops. 



Fertilizer. — 90-180-260 lbs. Super-phosphate, or 180-350-530 lbs. Thomas 

 Slag or Bone meal, or for heavy soils, 90 180-350 lbs. high-grade Sulphate of 

 Potash, or 80 per cent. Muriate, 180 350-530 lbs. Chili Saltpetre, 130-260 400 

 lbs. Sulphate of Ammonia. 



Additional suggestions. — An application of 18 tons of stable manure is not 

 sufficient to supply the plant food for an acre of vineyard for 4 years. Dr. Barth, 

 who has experimented considerably in this direction at the Alsace-Lorraine 

 Experiment Station at Rufach, has recommended an additional application of 

 commercial fertilizers. His rules are to manure with stable manure once in 5 

 years, with phosphoric acid and potash once in two years, and with the necessary 

 amount of nitrogen ir, the spring of each year. 



Where stable manure or muck is not to be had, except at a high price, one 

 can get along with fertilizers alone, and can keep the soil in good mechanical 

 condition by planting green crops, or making and applying a compost. One can 

 prepare a compost, that will last for 3 years, by taking 3-5 tons of fairly well 

 dried muck, and mixing with it 450-900 lbs. lime and one of the two mixtures 

 of artificial fertilizers recommended above. — B. 55 Geneva Experimental Station. 



Nitrog^en and Nitrog'en-Gatherers.— A few words in regard to nitro- 

 gen in fertilizers will not be out of place. This is the most costly constituent of 

 commercial fertilizers ; and, in many instances, the increased cost of the fertilizer 

 will balance or even exceed the increase in the proceeds from the crop, due to 

 the nitrogen. Fortunately, we are not obliged to rely entirely upon commercial 

 fertilizers for our supply of nitrogen to enrich our soils. Recent investigations 

 have proved that the class of plants called " leguminous plants," to which the 

 clovers, peas, beans, etc., belong, have the power of deriving from the air a part 

 of the nitrogen required in their growth. For this reason they are sometimes 

 called " nitrogen-gatherers." This fact helps to explain why clover is so valu- 

 able in restoring and enriching poor soils. If we fertilize our crop of clover 

 liberally with potash and moderately with phosphates we have there the means 

 of enriching our soil in all these " essential ingredients " of fertilizers. This is 

 a very important principle in the use of fertilizers, and is in accordance with long 

 established practice. — Bulletin No. 46, Ky. Ex. Station. 



