104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cultivation in the spring, and keep down the weeds by mulching. 

 About this matter of mildew in the foliage, I am at a loss to 

 account for it. I am not in the habit of doing anything to pre- 

 vent it. Sulphur is very highly recommended, and I have tried 

 it, but did not see any very great benefit resulting from it. It 

 is a very singular thing that in certain places there is no mildew. 

 I was at Washington a while ago, and I went down to the exper- 

 imental gardens. They ha^'e a very competent man in charge, 

 and he has tried the experiment of building a roof over his 

 vines, which protects them from the drenching rains, and from 

 dew at night, and, to some extent, from very sudden changes of 

 temperature. Wherever that roof was I noticed that his vines 

 were free from mildew ; and I have seen a communication pub- 

 lished by him since, in which he says that the vines were entirely 

 free from mildew where they had that protection, but his other 

 vines mildewed. I have no doubt that this is the explanation 

 of the healthy condition of the vine to which Mr. Bull referred 

 as growing upon his house. That is just what the grape wants. 

 It is not subject there to the alternations and fluctuations of the 

 weather. For instance, the sun being in the west, its rays fall 

 upon the house, the wood absorbs the heat, and the grape is 

 kept all the time warm. I am confirmed in this theory by the 

 fact that there is no difficulty in raising Allen's Hybrid, the 

 Sweetwater and Black Hamburg, in some instances, in the city, 

 which I cannot do anything with in the country. Grapes need 

 protection, and if you give them that protection you will see 

 beneficial effects. Some four or five years ago my men were 

 digging up some stones in a lot where we had some melons 

 planted, and about one hill they piled the stones six or eight 

 inches high. I told them to take them away, but they said they 

 wanted to try an experiment, and they did, and taught me some- 

 thing. Those vines were as large again, at the end of ten days 

 or two weeks, as the vines about them, everything else, appar- 

 ently, being the same except these stones. They absorbed a 

 great deal of heat and kept the melon vines warm through the 

 night. The same is true of grapes. My friend Brown has his 

 Concords trained over the rocks back of his place, and his 

 grapes are all right ; he will never fail to have crops. So in 

 Boston you get not only the direct heat of the sun, but the 

 reflected heat from the walls of buildings. 



