PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 151 



trained np to throw out laterals to bear fruit, wbile the others 

 are kept from producing laterals or fruit. The next year these 

 vines are allowed to bear, and the others pruned in a single 

 stem. This system is two hundred years old ; but is now intro- 

 duced again as Bright's system. As soon as the root becomes 

 old, it will fail to produce a good healthy cane. The sap always 

 runs up to the upper part of the vine. Here you see the best 

 colored and the ripest bunch of all at the very top, and here are 

 the poorest bunches at the bottom. That is the trouble with the 

 upright S3^stera, that it bears the best bunchos at the top. Upon 

 throwing it down upon a horizontal trellis we have bunches 

 nearly equal for the w^iole length. 



Mr. Perry. — The chickens destroyed some of the finest lower 

 bunches of this specimen. You will observe, too, that on that 

 upper lateral there are but two bunches; while upon this lower 

 one there are four, so that they will naturally have less nourish- 

 ment. The stake may be leaned over in the spring, checking the 

 flow of the sap and equalizing the bunches. 



Mr. Fuller. — That is not Bright's system, but the old green- 

 house mode. Bright's system is upright, and intended for the 

 vineyard, where they cannot introduce this tipping operation. 

 Trained upright, a vine will bear the best fruit at the top ; and 

 if allowed to extend itself upward the best fruit will still be at 

 the top, and there will be a space at the bottom where there will 

 be none. 



Mr. Perry considered the horizontal system more complicated 

 and difficult; especially in covering the ground evenly with 

 vines. 



Mr. Pardee said that the club were greatly indebted to Mr. 

 Perry, for this fine specimen of the Delaware grape, and to Rev. 

 Mr. Weaver, for specimens of the Hartford Prolific laid upon the 

 table to-day by him. He had never found Br. Underbill's 

 grapes well flavored, although so fine looking. 



Mr. Bergen attributed the difl'erence between Isabella grapes 

 to the difference in the locations in which they grew. He had 

 gro\>'-n superior Isabellas and inferior ones from cuttings from the 

 same vine. In one case an Isabella grape vine, which had pro- 

 duced superior fruit, failed upon a time to produce better fruit 

 than the other vines. 



Prof. Mapes. — My Isabella grapes are grown upon an arbor, 

 and they difi'er as widely, grown a few feet apart, as it is pos- 



