322 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grower. And no doubt it is this close attention necessary to give 

 the best results, that makes the vine so prominent among horti- 

 culturists today. I will not take time to describe to you the many 

 different ways of growing grapes as practised today in this 

 country, but simply tell you what I am doing. The first grapes I 

 set were put six feet by ten, and the trellis ran east and west. 

 This, at that time, was contrary to the views of most of the grape 

 growers, who favored north and south as the proper direction in 

 W'hich to run the trellis, but since that time there has quite a 

 change taken place in the minds of many of our prominent grape 

 growers, many claiming that where the trellis is run east and west 

 the vines and soil get the benefit of the sun's rays during the fore 

 part of the day, and that in the afternoon, as it declines, the 

 ground is not shaded by a north and south trellis, and thus gets 

 the full benefit of the sun. But be this as it may, our experience 

 leads us to say that it is not best to adopt any set rule, that drain- 

 age is of the most importance, and that it is best to run the trellis 

 so that it will assist in the rapid drainage of all surface water. 

 After ten or twelve years I thought I could not afford so much room 

 for these vines, and put a row in each space between the trellises, 

 so that they now stand six feet by five and have always given us as 

 fine grapes as any we have grown ; but we feed them higher than 

 where they are planted farther apart. While the most of my vines 

 are planted seven feet by six, I would now plant eight feet by six, 

 as eight feet is none too much to work in. Let us now stake off 

 our ground,— being provided with as many good stakes, four or 

 five feet long, as we intend to set vines. We go to one corner of 

 the field and set the first stake where we wish to have the first 

 vine in the first row ; then we establish the opposite cornei', hav- 

 ing measured off eight feet for each row ; the other end of the field 

 is next staked in the same way. Now^ we are ready for the six- 

 foot measure, and w^ith that and a man at the end of the row to 

 see that they are set straight, the stakes are put through the row, 

 and when you are done you have a field of stakes, each stake just 

 where you wish to have a grapevine, eight by six feet apart. AVe 

 are now ready to set the vines, a much easier task than it was to 

 set the stakes. But here arises a very serious question : what 

 varieties sliall we set? As few as possible; many a man has 

 learned this too late. We are confined to three, the Concord, 

 Worden, and Delaware; if it would succeed well on our soil we 



