86 



To be honest on the point each grape vine has a different con- 

 stitution from another, therefore I have studied the habits of but 

 two, Delaware and lona, but now I am going at the Concord and 

 try to get sweet grapes such as grow south of Mason and Dix- 

 on's line. I have fruited a number of seedlings but Iiad poor 

 luck and destroyed them all except one which showed good prom- 

 ise, it ripened up its fruit, three bunches, in 1873 the eighteenth 

 of August, berry smaller than the Delaware ; ten bunches in 

 1874, first of September berry as large as the Delaware ; in 1875 

 on one arm six feet long with twelve upright canes, had thirty 

 bunches one size larger than the Delav/are, ripe first of Septem- 

 ber. Leaf very much like Delaware, nothing wild in it but still 

 it has its faults with stamens and pistils. Tlie subject is too 

 lengthy to go into here. I had Mr. Upton, who exhibited in 

 the last Fair, come into my garden to see a trellis of 7-ipe grapes 

 the first of September. 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE VV. TAYLOR, PEABODY. 



Your communication asking me to give you my experience re- 

 garding the culture of the grape is received, and although I have 

 not achieved much success, perhaps a recital of my experience 

 may be of some use to those who are about to commence the 

 business of grape growing. At the start let me say to any one 

 who expects to make the cultivation of the grape in Essex Coun- 

 ty a paying business, that it will be a vain attempt and will end 

 in mortification and disgust. 



Those who think that by buying up and storing their minds 

 with the various treatises on the grape, they can go on and 

 succeed where others less learned in the science of grape 

 growing fail, and by a thorough knowledge of the pruning and 



