HARDY GRAPES. 49 



During the two or three years after they came into hearing, the 

 crops of fruit were larger than they ever produced afterwards. 

 He was generally able to get his grapes into market early, w^hile 

 higher prices ruled ; but last year the highest price received was 

 eight cents ; the market was soon over stocked and prices went 

 down rapidly. His next planting was a new vineyard of four 

 acres, with Moore's Early ; and the same season he planted a 

 three-acre vineyard of so-called white grapes, including one thou- 

 sand Hayes, the rest of the ground being planted with Pockling- 

 ton and Niagara. The Poeklington is verj^ showy, and perhaps is 

 the best native white grape. The Niagara drops its berries easily, 

 especially where the ground is depressed and the soil is richer. 

 The Hayes was quite unsatisfactory. Upon the whole the white 

 grapes proved an unprofitable investment. He has taken out the 

 Hayes altogether, and on that ground are planted one thousand 

 ^•ines of the Worden, which he considers a week earlier than the 

 Concord. It is ready to take off as soon as Moore's Early are 

 marketed. A Concord man who has a fondness for grapes, 

 desires to have some Wordens saved for him. He appreciates their 

 peculiar flavor. The fertilizer used by Mr. Hartwell is a mixture 

 of three tons of ground bone, and one tori of muriate of potash. 

 Of this he applies from five to six barrels to the acre. Insects 

 have never troubled him much until last year, when rose bugs 

 were more numerous than ever before. Mr. Hartwell referred to 

 Dr. Fisher's statement, that when a fruited arm or branch is cut 

 away the roots that supported that part died, and said he could 

 not bring himself to believe in that theory ; if true in the case of a 

 grape vine, why not in trees? He knew of an elm tree from 

 which all the roots on one side were cut aw^ay ; yet no one branch 

 of that tree appeared to suffer any more than any others from this 

 great loss. 



In reply to a question concerning the storage of grapes, Dr. 

 Fisher said that after being gathered they should be kept in a 

 cool, dry, still atmosphere, at a temperature of about forty 

 degrees. Below that point, if dampness should exist, the fruit 

 will lose its flavor. Thoroughly ripe Concord grapes will not keep 

 long under any treatment. Catawba grapes will keep all winter, 

 if not allowed to become so dry that the stems will shrivel, nor so 

 moist that they will mould. 



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