VINEYAKDS. 75 



season when so good results were obtained from these proc- 

 esses as the past, and our own experience is corroborated by 

 other cultivators with whom we have conversed. Where the 

 cultivation has been thorough the past season, the fruit has 

 gene rally been good, and the trees are vigorous ; while where 

 trees grew in sward or have had a lazy, slip-shod culture, 

 they are generally as bare of foliage at this time, first of Sep- 

 tember, as they should in be in December, and the fruit 

 small, gnarled and immature. We have a few trees of the 

 Belle Lucrative and Buffum varieties standing in sward that 

 it has not been convenient for us to break up for a number of 

 years. The fruit of these has usually been small and imper- 

 fect, ripening prematurely ; while other trees, of the same 

 varieties, standing but a short distance from the last, which 

 are thoroughly cultivated, retain their foliage late, the fruit 

 maturing perfectly and of good size. 



We advise no one to set fruit-trees unless he has a fondness 

 for them which will stimulate him to continued watchfulness 

 and care ; for the true secret of success in fruit-raising in our 

 comparatively old and exhausted soil, is high culture and per- 

 sistent care. Adopting the advice of the Laird of Dumbe- 

 dikes to his son on his death-bed, we would add, "and take 

 care of it." 



John Kenrick, for the Committee. 



YINEYAKDS. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Statement of Marcus Maxim. 



The vineyard which I entered for the society's premium con- 

 tains 547 vines, set the 12th of May, 1869, on about three- 

 fourths of an acre of land, in rows ten feet apart, and six feet 

 apart in the rows. The soil is a sandy loam, of very moderate 

 fertility, planted to corn and potatoes the tvvo years previous to 

 setting the vines, and treated rather lightly each year with a 

 compost consisting of one-fourth part barn manure, and three- 

 fourths muck, the muck having been previously mixed with a 



