6Q BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



orable circumstances, which had not occurred for thirty-six 

 years before, I had a remunerating crop of grapes. 



But although the hardy grapes may be grown here without 

 difficulty, still, they prefer certain kinds of soil, they need cer- 

 tain aspects, and certain conditions of growth, without which 

 they will not come to perfection, without which they will not be 

 of good quality. And let me say, in passing, that this accounts, 

 probably, for the diverse opinions in regard to our new grapes, 

 which are planted every year by various horticulturists, and 

 cultivated with equal skill, as far as cultivation goes, but in 

 regard to which the conditions necessary to the successful cul- 

 ture of the grape have not, in all cases, been present ; so that 

 in one instance, where these conditions are present, the grape 

 comes up to its type, and in the other falls behind it, as to time 

 of ripening, and of course, as to quality. The soil should be 

 light and warm, so that the tender roots of the grape may per- 

 meate it easily. It does not seem to be necessary in my expe- 

 rience — although it runs counter to my former belief, and 

 although it runs contrary to all the instructions of the books — 

 that the soil should be rich. We are told to trench the ground 

 and enrich it abundantly, and that nitrogenous and concentrated 

 manures are necessary and best for the grape. It is within my 

 knowledge, that a certain eminent grape-grower trenched his 

 soil thirty inches, and put upon an acre of land no less than a 

 thousand loads of manure. I think the size of the load was not 

 stated, but a thousand, even of the smallest loads, would be an 

 excessive quantity. On that soil, Delawares were grown six 

 feet in length in a season, from one year vines. This seems to 

 run counter to my experience, that grapes do not need a rich 

 soil ; but I speak of the hardy grapes that we have here. The 

 Delaware is a slow-growing grape. It has been traced to the 

 garden of Mr. Prevost, in Philadelphia, a gentleman who grew 

 foreign grapes ; and many German cultivators believe it to be a 

 seedling of the Traminer, a German grape, growing there. It 

 requires high feeding ; it grows slowly ; it is a child of another 

 country, and requires more nourishment and feeding than our 

 own more robust progeny. This is true of the foreign grape 

 generally. If you undertake to grow it here, you must enrich 

 the ground very much, so as to make some sort of compensation 

 for the long season which it had in its own country of five months, 



