GRAPE CULTURE— BIRDS. 469 



low rates. I give below the plan that I have tried ever since 

 1860. I have always had a good market; in fact, it is the most 

 profitable of any fruit that I grow, and I have never failed to 

 have a good crop since 1864. 



My grape roots I plant twelve feet apart, each way, and 

 always cultivate toward the grapes, thus forming a mound 

 where each plant stands. I have generally grown corn, or 

 vegetables among them, cultivating with the plow, giving good 

 clean culture, letting the grape have its own way, for the first 

 two or three years. 



When the vine is six or eight feet long, I lay it down in a 

 circle around the parent stem, covering it slightly with dirt. 

 It now takes root. After this I prune and cultivate as I would 

 the currant, sometimes putting brush under the grapes, to keep 

 them off the ground. 



One of these stools frequently yields one hundred pounds 

 of grapes in a season. I have less trouble to sell two tons of 

 grapes now, than I had to sell one hundred pounds in 1865. 

 The farmers come and get them, by five and ten dollars worth, 

 to make into pickles and preserves. 



Of course grapes grown in this way are not as good as 

 where only ten or twenty pounds are grown to the vine, which 

 is staked up from the ground. The only grape that I have 

 tried this way is the Concord, and this would probably not be a 

 success with high-priced land — financially. 



BIRDS. 



I need not argue the necessity of birds in profitable or- 

 chard management. For the past five years, in the Summer 

 months, I have placed in the orchard a box containing fifteen or 

 twenty bushels of oats, and have also kept a trough of water, 

 replenished daily, for the use of the birds. The quail, robin, 

 dove, and blackbird, tame the easiest. The dove, raises several 

 broods during the season, and becomes so gentle, and tame, 

 that I can almost lay my hand on her. 



It is a pleasant thing, at daylight to hear hundreds of birds 

 sing, as they come to get their breakfast, and to bathe in the 



