180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



bearing for a number of years, and I dislike to cut them up. I 

 can sell them for making jelly, and I am about as sure of them 

 as Mr. Hyde was of his wild vine ; and sometimes I think them 

 about as profitable as anything on that account. 



I should recommend, most certainly, if any one was planting 

 a vineyard, whether large or small, the selection of dry, warm 

 soil, and a location not liable to frost. Take a side hill, with a 

 southern slope — no matter if it is dry. I have observed this 

 fact — that a grape-vine will endure about as much dry weather 

 as any plant in the world. It will grow in sand that is very 

 dry, and hold its vigor and its green foliage, and not wilt during 

 the middle of the day when the sun plays down upon it. Hence 

 I would recommend the selection of warm, dry soil. Do not 

 make it too rich with manure. I think that land which will 

 carry a good substantial crop of corn is rich enough for a crop 

 of grapes. ', 



Mr. Brown. I want to say a word or two about peach trees. 

 That interests me, because I think the peach is the best fruit 

 that grows in this country, and I believe that it is considered 

 the best fruit grown in New England, by common consent ; and 

 it grieves me sorely that we cannot raise it abundantly in this 

 State. However, I feel impressed with the conviction that we 

 shall have a plentiful crop of peaches again. I have tried 

 various ways of raising them. I have raised them in pots, and 

 am doing it still. Very fine peaches can be raised in that way, 

 but they require greater care than a common farmer, who is 

 engrossed by his everyday duties about his farm, can bestow 

 upon them. That the climate is not suitable for them we must 

 all agree. Most of us get peaches, almost every year, from 

 branches that lie on the ground and are covered with snow. 

 Therefore the tree needs protection. Now how shall we get that 

 protection ? A farmer living in the town of Acton, three miles 

 from here, in 1855 received -loSO net from two hundred peach 

 trees on one acre of land. The trees were placed in a young 

 apple orchard, between the apple trees, on land that is high, very 

 stony and gravelly. Last year the crop was very light indeed. 

 This year his peaches netted him $100. One entire horseload 

 that he took to town brought him nine dollars a bushel. I was 

 up in New Hampshire in July and went into a peach orchard of 

 eight hundred trees. The trees were about twenty feet apart 



