26 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1881. 



bed composed of peat composted with manure and sand ; care 

 should be used so as to avoid gettino; in grass and weed seed, or 

 roots. Such a bed ought to yield one to two bushels to every 

 twenty square feet of land. It is a crop that will always pay 

 when properly grown. Tliere is no small fruit that keeps so 

 long or is better liked. 



There is many a bog meadow in Worcester County that is 

 worse than worthless inasmuch as it is the birthpla(;e of miasma, 

 tliat might with a small outlay be converted into the most 

 profitable land in the neighborhood. And yet, Mr. President, 

 we, the exponents of Horticulture in the County, do not even 

 offer a Gratuity to encourage its cultivation. 



Grapes are good in tlieir way and would feel slighted if we 

 skipped tiiem altogether, but if I only wanted to talk about them 

 as the respected Commissioner of Agriculture of the United 

 States of America does in his circular dated November 25, 1880, 

 " How could we make the most and best wine out of them?" I 

 should pray that my tongue might be paralyzed. I have a large 

 family of children and say with A. M. Purdy, editor of the 

 Small Fruit Recorder^ — and I thank him here, and now, for the 

 firm stand he has always taken in this matter — that I rather 

 follow any of them to the grave, than have them sit .at a table 

 where wine was part of the repast, or any other fermented 

 liquor, even apple juice. I tliank God 1 can hear of no wine 

 having been made from gra{)es in this good old County of 

 Worcester this year, and hope I never shall ; or in the State 

 either ! 



But I do hear that many of the worthless tracts of hill land 

 are being set to grajies ; and that all who are using good 

 judgment in selecting locations, varieties, and fertilizers, are 

 well pleased with their success. There are thousands of acres in 

 Massachusetts that do not produce enough to pay the taxes on 

 them now, tliat a small capital of money and labor would make 

 the most profitable land on the farm, if invested in this grape 

 industry. There is a constant and growing demand for good 

 ripe home-grown Concord grapes. 



It needs about four hundred and fifty vines to the acre, for 

 side-hill land, making them eight feet by twelve — and they would 

 cost about thirty dollars ; posts, and wire, and labor, and some 

 compost to put in the hills to start the vines would cost forty 

 dollars more ; and there ought to be enough of some other crop 

 raised on the land the first two or three years, before they were 

 old enough to bear much, to pay for the labor of cultivation, and 

 bone and other fertilizers that the vines need, and several crops 

 of grapes. 



