128 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



clear of weeds, his yield of fruit would have been only about 

 two-thirds of what he did secure. 



"We are also more fully conviuced that a warm soil, say a 

 sandy loam, is the most suitable for grapes, and we need not 

 aflfirm at this late day that a southern slope, considerably ele- 

 vated above the frosty hollows, is the best location, for that is 

 already understood. No matter how much heat can be concen- 

 trated in the soil, and we were about to say that rain or iio 

 rain, if the soil has been prepared so that the roots will pene- 

 trate to the depth of twelve inches, and cultivated properly, a 

 crop may be regarded as a sure thing. No plant, to our knowl- 

 edge, will stand a pinching drought better than a grape-vine. 

 We believe, too, that the most approved method in planting 

 vines is to have the rows running north and south, giving each 

 vine about sixty feet of land ; rows ten feet apart, and plants 

 six feet from each other in the row, varying a little as circum- 

 stances may require ; that, in our judgment, is right for the 

 strong-growing kinds, like the Concord, Hartford and others. 



Asa Clement, Chairman. 



FRANKLEs'. 



From the Report of the Committee. 

 It may not be amiss to advise any one who contemplates 

 starting in the fruit business, not to set out an orchard or vine- 

 yard on ground that has once been occupied recently by the 

 same kind of stock he intends planting. I should fear to set 

 young apple-trees on the site of an old orchard, from which 

 worthless apple-trees had been taken, but I should not fear to 

 let it succeed the pear or peach or grape, and I apprehend the 

 same may be said of all other fruits ; rotation may be as essen- 

 tial to that as to auy other crop. May not our lack of attention 

 to that, account in part for the unsatisfactory results in our pom- 

 ology ? I need not refer to the fact that nearly all the choicest 

 fruits are obtained by grafting or budding, only to allude to the 

 influence of the stock (if it has any). Is the stock a mere pas- 

 sive vehicle through which the sap is drawn by the leaves, hav- 

 ing no influence in the elaboration of the fruit ? If so it makes 

 no difference what the stock may be. But I do not believe 

 that to be the case. 



