THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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Black Hamburgh should be black, not red, as is frequently the case, from being kept 

 too close and confined, and not open to the air, as they should be. 



_ In selecting your fruit, care should be taken to have it equally distributed over the 

 vines. This will add very much to the appearance of the house as the fruit progresses. 



Tie all the spurs to the trellis as soon as the fruit has set, water regularly, sprinkle 

 with sulphur the same as last year. When the fruit has attained the size of a small 

 pea, commence to thin out, always taking the smallest berries. If you want large 

 berries, you must thin out severely ; take two out of five berries ; the strength will 

 enter those that are left, and cause these to grow beyond your expectations. 

 _ Then commence to shoulder or tie up the clusters, and spread them out so that the 

 air will pass freely through the clusters, and ease the main stem. After the fruit 

 begins to color, avoid all handling. If you touch the fruit, it will destroy its beauty, 

 and cause it to rust. If it is necessary to handle it after this stage, use a glove. 



Give the vinery plenty of air, plenty of heat, and plenty of moisture. Remember 

 that large fruit and large clusters are the objects to be attained. 



This is the manner in which I have treated my vines for the last three years, and 

 never have had any trouble from rot, rust, insect, shriveling, or shrinking; and in 

 seventeen months from the time the vines were planted, 7 took the second premium 

 at^ the State Fair at Rochester ; and this season the first premium at Utica, having 

 raised nine clusters on each vine, and exhibited grapes the weight of which was as 

 follows: Black Hamhirgh, 2 lbs. 12 oz.; Zinfindal, 2 lbs. 14 oz. ; Black St. Peters, 

 3 lbs. 2 oz. ; and all were ripened by the 5th of September, although the season was 

 backward and ujifavorable. 



What the vines will do another year, of course remains to be seen. I think, how- 

 ever, they are in good condition, the wood being well ripened ; and witli proper care, 

 a good crop may be expected. 



It will be seen that this statement is plain and to the point ; and could I have had 

 these notes to refer to when I commenced, they would have saved me a great deal of 

 trouble. And I think that with these notes, and the help of Downing's work and a 

 work on the grape published by J. F. Allen, Boston, Mass., any one may raise the 

 foreign grape without any fear of failure. And certainly, to see the house well in 

 fruit one season, will go a great way toward paying for what some would call trouble. 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE NORTH-WESTERN FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION, at their 

 second Annual Meeting, held at Dixon, III, Sept 29 and 30, 1852. 



In order to place a proper estimate on the decisions of this meeting, we have looked 

 over the list of delegates, or members, and find that out of the whole number, 63, there 

 were from the State of Illinois fifty-three, from Iowa six, from Indiana one, from Ohio 

 one, and from Wisconsin two. In the main, therefore, we must regard this as an Illinois 

 association ; and as there is at the present time a pretty general ieeling in favor of the 

 organization of State pomological Societies, we think it not at all unlikely that this will 

 assume that character. It would probably be well that it should do so. The great 

 State of Illinois, extending over five or six degrees of latitude, and containing some 

 60,000 square miles of territory, aflFords ample scope for the labors of such an Associa- 

 tion. Ohio has already such an organization. Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, 

 and Kentucky will no doubt very soon see the necessity of it ; as in all these States the 

 more intelligent and improving classes of the population are turning tlu'ir attention 

 earnestly and energetically to fruit culture. 



It IS unnecessary for us to urge upon our western friends the advantages of such 

 associations ; for they show that they are fully sensible of them, in the formation of 



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