122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



VINEYARDS. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Statement of R. E. Packard. 



The vineyard set by Mr. Otis contains four lumdred and 

 twenty-five Concord vines, twenty-five Delaware and six Hart- 

 ford Prelifics. The Concords and Hartfords were two years old 

 when set ; the Delawares were raised in a hot-house the pre- 

 vious winter. The soil is a gravelly loam, nearly level ; it had 

 been mown six years without dressing, and was in a worn-out 

 condition. In 1866 it was planted to potatoes, with a little 

 supcrphospate in the hills, the crop paying for cultivation. 



April, 1867, seven cords of stable manure were ploughed in 

 seven inches deep, and the ground harrowed with a heavy har- 

 row. The vines were set in May, the rows nine feet apart, and 

 the vines six feet apart in the rows. The ground was kept 

 clean by using the cultivator and hand-hoe. The Concords and 

 Hartfords were trained with two horizontal arms, the Delawares 

 with but one. All other shoots were pinched back, and all 

 laterals, tendrils and fruit blossoms were cut off. In the fall, 

 eight hundred and eight3^-seven cedar posts, from four to six 

 inches in diameter and eight feet long, costing eight cents a 

 piece were bought, stripped of their bark and housed. 



In the spring of 1868, two posts were set to each vine, two 

 feet deep, with the exception of the Delawares, for which but 

 one post was used, and the two arms were trained around them 

 in serpentine form. The land was kept well loosened by culti- 

 vating and hoeing three times, but not very deep. Mr. Otis not 

 being able to prune the vines in the fall, they were left until the 

 spring of 1869, when, he having died in March, I proceeded to 

 carry out his intentions as nearly as I was able to do without 

 practical experience. 



After the vines were well leaved out, I pruned them back to 

 two eyes, and when the new shoots got about two feet long, I 

 pinched them off, cutting off all laterals and tendrils. The 

 vines, now four years old, were considered old enough to bear, 

 but only two of the best bunches were allowed to remain on 

 each shoot, and vines which were not stx-ong and healthy were 



