TIFE GENESEE FARMER. 



155. 



"WHAT KINDS OF GRAPES SHALL I PLANT V 



At a recent meeting of the- American Institute Farm- 

 ers' Club, Solon- Robinson said be had been induced to 

 undertake to answer this question in consequence of re- 

 ceiving the following letter from a German friend : 



I have two sons to whom I wish to leave esach a vine- 

 yard. I came from Steinberg, aud my sons inherit a love 

 for the vine; but your favorite American kinds are not 

 good to our palates. Now,, will not the American taste 

 soon so far improve as to reject such poor flavored kinds 

 as the Isabella and Concord, and just as the vineyards 

 come into bearing, will they not be found worthless, and 

 the taste all gone" to Delaware and Diana, which remind 

 me of our own Traminer and Rissling, which refresh 

 like wine? I'lease tell us, and by so doing, tell many in 

 Moumouth county who, like us, desire to know. Have 

 you had the long and extensive observation that is ne- 

 cessary to form an opinion, or can you tell me who has ? 

 Your friend, gotlieb bukzel. 



Mr- Robinson remarked that this is the most important 

 agricultural question of the present daj'. It is important 

 because it has now become as certain as anything of the 

 future, that America will surely become a great vine- 

 growiug and wine-producing country. That this event 

 will certainly happen we are just as sure as we are that 

 France is already a great producer of grapes. The ex- 

 tent of vineyards already planted is greater than the 

 mass of people have any conception of; and of the extent 

 of preparation for planting no one has an idea, except 

 the very few whose interest or taste has led them to in- 

 quire. We are assured by the best authority in this country 

 that there are now planted, and in preparation for plant- 

 ing, at least a thousand acres of laud in the small State 

 ot New Jersey, and that in only a few counties, and yet 

 grape growing in that State has been as yet hardly thought 

 of, and so little talked about that its own citizens are not 

 generally aware of the progress of this new and great in- 

 dustrial pursuit of a few of the people. Yet in a few 

 years the grape crop of New Jersey will become one of 

 the most important of that State, and the product of its 

 vineyards will not only furnish New York with an abun- 

 dance of fresh fruit, but will put a strong check on the 

 importation of wines. 



There has been within a year past one tract of twenty 

 thousand acres of forest land, in Cumberland county, 

 opened to settlement, aud a town laid out in its centre 

 called "Vineland," because the proprietor believes the 

 soil well adapted to the growth of grapes, and intends to 

 encourage all the settlers to devote their attention to their 

 cultivation. We should not be surprised to see five thou- 

 sand acres of this tract planted or prepared for planting 

 with vines within five years. 



Monmonth county, too, will soon become as famous for 

 its great crops of grapes, as it has been in past years for 

 its peaches. • 



Pennsylvania is also moving, in all its breadth, from the 

 Delaware to the Ohio, in its preparation to become a wine 

 making State. 



New York has already several vineyards of considerable 

 importance, which furnish its cities with some hundreds 

 of tons of fresh grapes, and some of them have made 

 wine to a limited extent, which we hope never will be any 

 greater until their proprietors learn to make something 

 more worthy of the name of wine than the sweetened al- 

 coholic beverages which they have produced, and which 



some of them have the effrontery to advertise as- "pure- 

 juice of the grape for sacramental purposes." 



In Connecticut, there is at this time a very decided 

 "awakening" upon the subject of grape growing, and 

 large quantities are already produced, and the intention 

 of making it eventually a wine-producing State is very 

 evident. 



Mr. Robinson mentions several facts, all tending to 

 prove the Delaware the best of all the hardy American* 

 grapes. It was thought that it would no* prove a popu- 

 lar market grape on account of its comparatively small 

 size, but a gentleman who had sent them to the New York, 

 market fouud that those who once purchased them re- 

 turned for more, and they had been sold at fifty cents 

 per lb. 



■ — m > w ■ 



ORCHARD CULTURE AND ITS RESULTS. 



Immediately after the orchard is set, coarse manure or 

 spent tan-bark should cover the ground from four to six 

 inches deep over a diameter of six feet, with the tree 

 standing in the center, aod remain there during the first 

 season, while the rest of the ground is being tilled with a 

 hoed crop. Corn is preferable. 



The plow should never come within three feet of the 

 tree, nor any vegetable allowed to .grow. Year by year 

 the plow should recede farther and farther from the tree- 

 till it be excluded from the orchard entirely. Yet a sur- 

 face culture should be continued by means of a cultivator,, 

 aud the ground sown with buckwheat till the size of the 

 trees exclude all culture except by hand. At this stage 

 of the orchard, a general mulching might take the place 

 ot cultivation, or hog-culture when practicable, or any 

 way by which the vegetation might be promoted to grow- 

 ing and the ground receive sufficient nutriment for the- 

 beuefit of the orchard. 



Pruning should begin when the trees have grown two 

 years, and thereafter annually, with a knife, and no limb 

 should remain to grow so large as to require a saw to est 

 it off that is to be removed at all. 



The trees require the entire resources of the soil, in a 

 good state of cultivation, from the time of setting out un- 

 til it begins to produce crops of fruit, when manuring is- 

 necessary in proportion to the quantity of fruit produced. 

 The supply to the soil must necessarily be in proportion 

 to the crop of fruit produced in order to secure annual 

 productiveness. Without it, the fruit will degenerate in 

 quality, size and quantity, the trees become unthrifty and 

 the orchard a failure, as is generally the case. 



With good trees, set in a good soil, and well cared-for 

 as above, small crops will usually be produced the fourth 

 or fifth year, and an increase each succeeding year — often 

 the eighth year the orchard averaging from one to two 

 barrels of fruit per tree. 



Annual productiveness from annual manuring is a set- 

 tled fact, and the few (very few) who follow the rule reap 

 a rich reward. I could adduce many instances in demon- 

 stration, but will mention two : In the first case the or- 

 chard was planted of one hundred and fifty trees, by 

 Benj. Hoyt, of New Canaan, Conn., in 1853, on an old 

 piece of laud which had been under cultivation since long 

 before the Revolutionary war. The trees were set eigh- 

 teen feet apart each way, and treated after the above re- 



