300 



The Grape Gulturist. 



bold my own as well as could be ex- 

 pected. Yours truly, 



Isaac Martin. 

 [We think you have done remark- 

 ably well under the circumstances, and 

 certainly deserve to succeed, for your 

 industry and perseverance. You are 

 all right with Martha and Goethe, thej'^ 

 are safe and reliable. — Editor.] 



Alubjiakle County, Virginia. 



Also here, a good year for vines, 

 wine and grapes, though for a time it 

 looked as if the fairest pi'ospect for 

 grapes we have had, so far, would have 

 been entirely ruined, when, during the 

 month of June, just as the vines were 

 in full bloom, wet weather set in. 



Spring opened very favorably here 

 — severely cold weather in March ; 

 April mild and pleasant. The Clinton, 

 Concord, etc., showed expanded buds, 

 and in some instances fully developed 

 leaves, about the Easter holidays ; 

 while Delaware, etc., showed such not 

 before the last week of April. By 

 the 8th of Ma}", shoots w^ere from six 

 inches to three feet long, and every- 

 thing had been thinned out to from 

 one to three shoots, tied up as needed, 

 and the blossoms, wherever they 

 showed, taken off. If the thinning- 

 out had to bo done over again, I 

 should leave to Delaware but one, and 

 to all other varieties one or two 

 shoots, according to strength. As it 

 is at present, the best Delawares, hav- 

 ing grown fully twelve feet, are such 

 where but one shoot was leftj while, 

 whenever two remained, a growth by 

 far inferior to the first Avas arrived at, 

 notwithstanding that these plants at 

 time of thinning out looked the 

 strongest. As for Clinton, I noticed 



about the first of May some extra 

 strong plants with four or five shoots, 

 those nearest the ground one-third of 

 an inch strong. For an experiment, I 

 left three. These to-day are scarcoly 

 half an inch, while where but two 

 were left they sometimes exceed an 

 inch in diameter neai'est the ground, 

 and have by far the best laterals. 

 That some of these laterals show fruit 

 already, even, does not surprise me so 

 very much, as I have noticed the same 

 thing on the year's laterals of bearing 

 vines before now, though never before 

 have I seen fruit on laterals of vines 

 in their second year, main cane and 

 laterals of the same second year. 



At this date only Diana has lost 

 most of its foliage ; all others look 

 strong and healthy. Delaware, and, 

 above all, Norton's are growing on, 

 which, I think, ma}' strengthen the 

 Delawares, and cannot hurt the Nor- 

 ton's. Norton's, Concord, Clinton, 

 Hartford, Alvey, Diana and Ives made 

 satisfactory growth to bear at least 

 half a crop in '71. Only Delaware 

 averaged a rather puny growth, and 

 of 3,600 vines I do not expect one- 

 third to bear next year. 



In the quantit}' produced by bearing 

 vines in the vineyard of my neighbor, 

 W. Hotopp, there was a great im- 

 provement this year, thanks to the 

 longer pruning advocated by The 

 CtRape Culturist. Concords, which 

 last year hardly produced 7 lbs., bore 

 from 25 to 30 lbs. of fine grapes, while 

 one of the same age on same soil, 

 pruned in old style, yielded less than 

 10 lbs. 



Mr. Hotopp cut above amount from 

 his vines, though he had given up all 

 hope almost of any grape crop when, 



