1880.] TRANSACTIONS. 35 



it is determined the season previous how many clusters there will 

 be and how many berries on a cluster, and how many buds 

 will open. It takes two years to make a grape crop, and nothing 

 can be done between now and next July to alter the one now 

 in embryo, therefoi-e in the spring preparation must be made for 

 the next season. Overloaded vines will not mature either wood 

 or fruit, and the crop is not wortii half as mucli, and the next 

 year's crop will be onlj' half a one. On light soil he would use 

 barnyard manure, but on strong soil he would not, as it would 

 destroy the balance of the vines. He uses chemical fertilizers, as 

 his soil is heavy, but just what a soil needs can be determined only 

 by experiment, and he is engaged in making experiments whicli 

 will have to be repeated time after time. Being asked the remedy 

 for a vine which has grown luxuriantly for twenty 3'ears without 

 fruiting, he said dig it up. Dooi'yard vines, as a rule, are too 

 highly manured. There is a good deal of work about growing 

 g-rapes as well as everything else, and the vines must be looked 

 after closely or you will not succeed, as they must be attended to 

 at just the right time. The shoots should not be tied till after 

 they have become a little woody and reached the wire, and all 

 should be tied up at once, usually about the 10th to the 20tli of 

 June. Never had seen the thrips out-of-doors. The only grape 

 to cultivate for market he believes to be the Concord, as ensuring 

 a crop nine years in ten, while with others a crop cannot be got 

 more than seven years in ten, and some not more than two or 

 three. . With him the Delaware sometimes mildews, and then 

 the grapes don't ripen. The Rogers either give a valuable or a 

 worthless crop, and are inclined to mildew, and you must have 

 a vine healthy two years in succession to get a crop, and this is 

 the trouble with many varieties. The Worden he had grown till 

 it produced two excellent crops of Concords, and the Bi'ighton 

 he had found to mildew badly ; the Concord is thin-skinned 

 and will not keep long. To keep at all they must be put into a 

 cool, dry, uniform atmosphere, and the same is true of any fruit. 

 He never handles the fruit, laying it as sooti as picked on boards 

 and carrj'ing to his cellar, where they remain till ready for the 

 market. Grapevines bleeding to death is an old woman's whim, 

 and he prunes at any time though preferring the autumn. After 

 the buds swell lie would prefer to rub them oif instead of pruning, 

 but would not hesitate to prune if he wanted to. 



