18 



The Grape Culturist. 



shavings, and over each carcass he 

 planted a vino I lie made his trellises 

 seven feet high, and they were soon 

 completely covered with the vines. 

 For a time, he gathered good crops, — 

 once, as much as six tons from the 

 hundred and sixty vines planted on 

 that acre of ground. "But, as the roots 

 grew rank in a soil of such excessive 

 richness. Nature employed its forces 

 in endeavoring to restore the equili- 

 brium between vine and root ; and the 

 result in later j'ears has been a re- 

 dundancy of wood and foliage, and but 

 little fruit. 



During subsequent years, as the 

 methods pursued in other vinej-ards 

 became known, the wide planting in 

 the McKa}' vineyard was the subject 

 of considerable criticism ; and this was 

 not without its effect upon those who 

 afterwards established vineyards in 

 the valley-. And though never toler- 

 ating the plan of close-planting, yet 

 the Naples people did lessen the dis- 

 tances, in many instances, to twelve 

 feet by twelve. But the example of 

 high training, however, was followed ; 

 and the general height of the trellises 

 is from six to six feet and a half 

 With the room thus accorded to the 

 vine to grow, the necessity of summer- 

 pruning was scarcely ever felt; nor, 

 indeed, Avas it introduced until a few 

 years since, when Germans found their 

 way into the valley, and planted vine- 

 yards. But the contrast between the 

 fruiting qualities ot theirs and their 

 neighbors' vines soon caused them to 

 discontinue, or to greatly modifj', the 

 extent to which they practiced that 

 system of pruning. 



In connection with the facts I have 

 stated, I will add that the vineyards 



of Naples Valley, notwithstanding the 

 excessive rain-fall of the summer, are 

 to-day more healthy and better loaded 

 with fruit than any I have seen on an 

 extended tour thi'ough the vine dis- 

 tricts of New York State and the 

 shore of Lake Erie ; and though there 

 was some rot among the Catawbas, 

 there was not enough to prevent a fair 

 crop. 



It would seem to those familiar 

 with the general practice in planting 

 vineyards, that a distance between the 

 vines of twelve feet by twelve, requir- 

 ing but throe hundred and two vines 

 to the acre, would certainly be suffi- 

 cient to satisfy the most extreme ad- 

 vocates of wide planting. But exper- 

 ience at Naples Valley has shown that 

 even a greater spread on the trellis 

 ma}" be necessary to insure the pro- 

 duction of fruit. It is a common re- 

 mark among practical vineyard-culti- 

 vators, that for the rank-growing va- 

 rieties of grape-vines, like the Isabella, 

 Catawba, Concord, Diana, and Clinton, 

 a lean, poor soil is essential ; and that 

 the use of fertilizers, except in extreme 

 cases, tends to increase the growth of 

 wood and foliage, and to diminish the 

 production of fruit. While, under cer- 

 tain circumstances, there is a phase of 

 truth in this statement, j-et facts 

 which have transpired in Naples Val- 

 ley have shown, that, under other cir- 

 cumstances, a very rich soil may be 

 profitably used in vineyard-culture, if 

 other prerequisites are at hand. 



Some years since, Hon. E. B. Pot- 

 tle, President of the New-York State 

 Grape-Growers' Association, found an 

 Isabelhx vino on his place from which 

 he had been unable to get any fruit. 

 With nearly thirty acres of vinos in 



