d<2 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



lortinilliiral JSrpitiuiit. 



ANNUAL MEETING OF THE WESTERN NEW YORK 

 FEUIT-GROV/ERS' ASSOCIATION. 



■[Continued from last number.] 



Mr. J. B. Johnson said Mr. McKay had If acres 

 of grapes, one acre of which had been set out but 

 recently. He sold the crop this year for S1200. — 

 The vines were one rod apart each wa_y, making 160 

 per acre. At the time they were planted he placed 

 a large quantity of the carcasses of animals under 

 the vines. His grapes ripened perfectly and became 

 quite black. The soil was gravely with a clay sub- 

 soil, situated in a valley with a warm exposure. At- 

 tributed much of his success to close pruning. 



Mr. Flower, of Onondaga Co., said grapes were 

 raised very easily around Syracuse. One gentleman 

 had sold the produce from half an acre for #800 — 

 Had known the fruit on one vine to sell for #12. 

 Cultivated the Isabella principally. The Catiwba 

 did not always ripen well. 



Mr. AiNswoRTH, of Bloomfield, said Mr. McKay 

 pruned very closely both summer and winter, and 

 thus exposed the sun to the light and air. In reply 

 to an observation, he said the leaves should not be 

 cut off. lie, Mr. A., cultivated g^rapes pretty exten- 

 sively; thought from $.500 to .$800 per acre might 

 be depended on. He trained his vines on trellis from 

 five to six 'eet in height; had always found the 

 grapes better near the ground than high up; the 

 best grapes were found about half way up the trellis. 

 His vines were planted seven feet one way and fif- 

 teen feet the other. The first year he allowed two 

 vines to run in opposite directions horizontally under 

 the trellis. In the spring cut them back to within 

 two buds and when they broke he pinched off one of 

 them, throwing all the force into one vine, which he 

 trained perpendicularly. Pruned generally two or 

 three times more during the summer, keeping ofi" all 

 extra vineg, but allowing plenty of leaves to elaborate 

 the sap for the fruit. In November of each year he 

 cut away nearly all the old wood. People generally 

 do not prune enough; they allow too many useless 

 vines to grow, which exhaust the plant. The ground 

 should not be cropped, but should be thoroughly 

 cultivated once a week. The manure should be put 

 on in the fall and plowed in in the spring. Deep 

 culture was desirable. He obtained from two to 

 three bushels of grapes from each vine. 



Mr. H. E. Hooker thouglit a sheltered location 

 absolutely necessary. He had never seen a ripe 

 grape which grew in an exposed situation; shelter 

 was necessary m the winter and spring. 



Col. Hodge thoughtthat high manuring, especially 

 with carcasses, was more necessary than with any 

 other crop. A friend of his kept a slaughter house, 

 and every year he opened the ground around his vines 

 and poured in a quantity of blood, and found more 

 benefit from it than from any amount of barn-yard 

 manure. 



TOP GRAFTING OLD ORCHARDS. 



CoL. HoDGH, of Buff'alo, said that if the trees were 

 old, far advanced in life, and had commenced decay, 

 he would by all means cut them down. But if they 

 were young and vigorous, he would graft them. A 

 friend of his had an orchard — some of the trees were 

 old and mossy, many of them had commenced decay- 

 ing and the fruit was gnarled and poor. An itinerant 

 grafter came and grat'ted them, using his own grafts, 

 and setting many of them twenty feet above the 

 ground. In a few years, when the grafts grew, his 

 trees looked so bad and ill-shapen that he became 

 discouraged and cut them down. He dug up the 

 stumps, thoroughly broke up the ground, manured it 

 and planted out a young orchard, and^ in a few years 

 obtained a fine orchard of handsome trees. In 1848 

 a neighbor of his planted 100 apple trees; a year ago 

 last fall, he picked from the orchard 127 barrels. — 

 Some of the Baldwin trees yielded three barrels to 

 the tree. 



Mr. Luther Barber, of East Bloomfield, had fol- 

 lowed top grafting extensively for more than twenty 

 years. Soon after he commesnced grafting, he adopt- 

 ed a different method from the one in general use, and 

 his experience fully confirmed him in the belief that 

 it was by far the best. It was to saw oS" the limbs 

 of the trees low down — no matter if they were six op 

 eight or ten inches in diameter, and then insert a row 

 of grafts around the limb about an inch apart. This 

 should be done early in. the spring he fort the sap 

 starts at all, or it will not succeed as well. He did 

 not saw off all the top the first year, but left a por- 

 tion to help sustain the tree for a year or two. Of 

 the grafts which were put in thick, a few of them soon 

 took the lead and made the future top of the tree. 

 One great advantage of inserting so many is, that it 

 keeps the whole limb alive and does not form nny 

 dead spots on the sides of the limbs. These grafts, 

 by getting the whole force of the tree, grew rapidly 

 and very soon formed a good top. He had known 

 three barrels of apples to be picked from trees so 

 grafted in three years grafting. He had never ex- 

 perienced any ill results from this method, or dis- 

 covered that it injured the tree in the least. He 

 ought to say, however, that he always used kinds 

 which grow rapidly in preference to the slower grow- 

 ing sorts, as they supplied a top much sooner. He 

 found it always revived an old orchard to put a flour- 

 ishing young top on it. He had known trees grafted 

 in this manner, to bear good crops of apples for 

 twenty-five years past. He once saved a pear tree 

 which had apparently been killed by the fire blight, 

 by sawing it off below the disease, and putting in 

 several grafts — the tree revived and lived a longtime. 

 He sometimes cut his stocks during the winter, and 

 grafted them early in the spring, before the snow went 

 oS". 



Mr. H. E. Hooker, of Rochester, said that in his 

 father's garden a pear tree was struck with the blight 

 — seeing no other way of saving it, he sawed off the 

 trunk, some five or b\x inches iu diameter, and insert- 



