GRAPE CULTURE. 29 



system required more care than spur pruning. The Isabella is 

 still raised in Chester and sent to market ; they escape frosts there. 

 The Catawba ripened as early as the Isabella ; they were never 

 covered in winter and never killed. 



Hervey Davis regretted that the essayist had not said more 

 about varieties and culture for amateurs. He had grown grapes 

 for fifteen or twent}^ years, and had never succeeded better than 

 when he trained them on stakes ; he thought they were then most 

 easily pruned and best exposed to the sun and air. His plan was 

 to take up three shoots to three stakes, and once in a few years, 

 when they needed renewal, to take up a new one. Pie would lay 

 down vines, and thought Mr. Moore might have saved his by 

 covering. 



Mr. Moore said that he had never lost any vines by the tops 

 winter killing, but he had lost a solid half acre by the killing of 

 the roots. He mulches them now with three or four inches of 

 refuse bristles, and does not lose them. The temperature of the 

 ground does not rise so high as if they were not mulched, but, to 

 compensate, it never falls as low, and the mulching saves the 

 trouble of weeding. He has one vineyard where there has not 

 been a hoe, plough, or manure, for eight years, and it has contin- 

 ued to produce full crops of good fruit. 



Mr. Davis remarked that while Mr. Barnett and Mr. Moore dis- 

 carded the lona, he had ripened it seven years out of eight, by 

 covering the vines during winter with straw or hay. It had the 

 same treatment as twelve other varieties that he cultivated. 



The Chairman said all would agree that Mr, Barnett is a very 

 careful observer. He thought his sj'stem excellent in many re- 

 spects. Though the plan of crossing the roots and taking six 

 canes up one post was, in his opinion, objectionable, these were 

 not material parts of the system. There was no reason why we 

 should train two canes on one rod, and with one tier above another 

 the upper would be likely to shade the lower. He liked the plan 

 of allowing the laterals to arch over, without tying, as it checked 

 their growth and saved the need of so much pinching. The main 

 point brought out by Mr. Barnett was admirable — the carrying 

 the vines away from the roots, where they do not shade the ground. 

 He approved of root pruning, if the roots were inclined to run 

 under shade, and thought the pot-bound condition serviceable in 

 producing fruitfulness ; the roots are kept within bounds. He 



