29 



seems important. The same is true of other fruits as well as of 

 the grape, and this may account for the great diversity of opin- 

 ion as to the rank of certain varieties, among equally good 

 judges. In one instance a fruit is grown under the most favor- 

 able conditions, and in the other the conditions are all adverse. 

 Grapes in California, where grapes almost equal to our best hot- 

 house varieties grow spontaneously, have been found to contain 

 fifty per cent, more sugar on the mountains than in the valleys. 

 This may be owing, in part, to the fact that on elevations the 

 season for ripening is longer, such localities being comparatively 

 exempt from frost. 



There can be no doubt that the quality of all small fruits may 

 be improved, or injured, by the amount and kind of plant-food 

 applied to the soil. And there is a wide field open in this direc- 

 tion for experiment and observation. As all the elements of 

 plant nutrition are now conveniently accessible, through dealers 

 in chemicals and chemical fertilizers, it would not seem difficult 

 to arrive at some definite and important results relative to thi& 

 subject. 



RAPID PROPAGATION. 



The grower is often anxious to increase to the utmost a val- 

 uable, scarce, or high-priced variety, and it is possible to obtain 

 fifty or one hundred runner plants from a single stock-plant the 

 first year. In order to attain this object, careful attention and 

 judicious management will be required. First in order will be a 

 thorough preparation of the land at least a foot deep two feet 

 would be better by the use of a spading-fork or plow, cultivator 

 and harrow. A heavy application of fine old stable-manure, or 

 compost, should be worked into the soil, and if this can be done 

 the autumn previous to planting out, all the better. Peruvian 

 guano, if it can be obtained before it has been " doctored," or 

 some chemical fertilizer containing a large per cent, of nitrogen 

 for it is plants and not fruit that we are working for may be 

 applied with advantage. Avoid the use of green manure, as its 

 action is slow and we are in a hurry, and for the reason that it 

 is liable to fill the land with the white grub (lachnosterna fusca), 

 the larvae of the May-bug, June-bug, or dor-bug, as it is often 

 called, so destructive in the strawberry-patch. 



Set the plants as early in spring as the condition of the soil 



