128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and it is a very beautiful 

 sight ; exceedingly ornamental. A little tree, the size of a 

 whip-stock, three feet high, trained symmetrically and hand- 

 somely, with four or five dozens of early Crawfords upon it, 

 looks beautifully. I do not know why people who raise things 

 for ornament should not go in for peaches as well as everything 

 else. They certainly would be ornamental. 



Mr. Hyde. Why not profitable ? 



Mr. Clement. I have no doubt they would be, to raise for 

 the Boston market, where they pay such high prices. I learn 

 that some of the fairest peaches sell for a dollar apiece. 



Mr. Hyde. Three dollars. 



Mr. Clement. Three dollars ? Well, I believe they could 

 afford to grow at that price. I suppose there are some people, 

 probably enough to take all we can raise at present, who are 

 ready to pay these high prices. I know there are men who 

 have to contrive ways and means of spending their income, and 

 it is fortunate for us poor people that there are such. 



I think our friend Mr. Hyde alluded to mulching grape-vines 

 with bristles from a brush factory. I hardly approve of mulch- 

 ing grape-vines under any circumstances ; there may bo excep- 

 tions. Of course, if you mulch a grape-vine with bristles or 

 leaves or rubbish of any sort, you shade the ground ; it will be 

 a little cooler, it will be more moist, of course ; it will attract 

 the roots up there, so that you cannot cultivate the ground 

 without taking off certainly many thousand fibres ; and I like 

 to have the sun shine upon the soil round a grape-vine. 



Mr. Hyde. That was only an experiment. 



Mr. Clement. It was very well to try it, but you would not 

 recommend it after trying it ? 



Mr. Hyde. No, sir. 



Mr. Clement. I should not recommend mulching grape- 

 vines, except perhaps under some peculiar circumstances. 

 Where the roots come very near the surface, and there is great 

 danger of drought, perhaps an occasional mulching might 

 preserve the vine. 



The matter of pruning grape-vines has been alluded to, and 

 I had intended to say a word in relation to it. I wrote to Mr. 

 Bull a year or two ago, and told him that the remarks he had 

 made at one of our meetings — I do not remember now where— 



