26 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fall, as the most convenient time, but having left two rows, and 

 pruned them in March, he was surprised to find that they leaved 

 out earlier than those pruned in the autumn. He did not agree 

 with Mr. Hovey's view that when vines were pruned early the sap 

 would accumulate in the buds and perfect them. He would raise 

 well ripened wood and not lay it down. 



Col. Wilder had said that however grape vines might escape in 

 ordinary seasons, once in a while there would come a winter when 

 they would be killed, and we should lay them down to insure 

 against such seasons. This might be true from his stand-point, 

 for his soil was rich and strong, and he did not get good grapes. 

 His soil is well suited to pears, but not fit to grow grapes on, and 

 Mr. Moore did not think his opinion on grapes as valuable as on 

 pears. 



Mr. Barnett had condemned the Croton, Allen's Hybrid, lona, 

 Agawam, and others, and Mr. Moore agreed with him ; and though 

 Mr. Barnett thought better of the Wilder, Delaware, etc., he 

 ■wound up by recommending the Hartford, Concord, and Martha, 

 for table, and the Ives and Clinton for wine. The Clinton can 

 only be grown on long canes, and if Mr. Barnett followed up his 

 system with the Concord, in a few years the}- would be a failure, 

 for the base buds would all be leaf buds. Every one would agree 

 with Mr. Barnett as to the necessit}- of sun on the border. Mr. 

 Moore said he would rather grow grapes on a trellis than on stakes, 

 but he had been forced to the conclusion that they would ripen a 

 few days earlier on stakes, though the idea was expressed in books 

 that they would ripen earlier when the vines were spread out on 

 trellises. Mr. Barnett had quoted Du Breuil as authority, but the 

 principles which he laid down applied only to the foreign grape, 

 and no more to our native grapes than to a shrub oak. Dr. 

 Warder, in editing the book, questioned many of the positions of 

 Du Breuil. 



Robert Manning said that Mr. Moore was mistaken as to the 

 character of the soil where Mr. Wilder's grapes grew. It was 

 true that most of the soil where his dwarf and other pear trees 

 were planted was strong and moist, but the grapes grew on a slope 

 facing the southwest, where the soil was warm and but moderately 

 rich. 



Charles M. Hovey thought Mr. Barnett's paper very good in- 

 deed. Outside of the regular cultivators of the grape there were 



