76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



always. AtKelley's Island, where they grow the best Catawbas, 

 they boast of a crop of three and a half tons to the acre, as if it 

 was a large crop ; and it is a large crop. But you are to remem- 

 ber that that grape has a constitutional defect — the rot — always 

 weakening it more or less, and sometimes excessively, otherwise 

 it might, perhaps, give the same weight. Your first crop would 

 be at the rate of more than 3,500 pounds to the acre ; your 

 second crop, 7,000 pounds ; your third crop, over 10,000 ; your 

 fourth, 14,000 pounds, or seven tons to the acre. I have shown 

 you that that crop has been exceeded for three successive years, 

 from a vineyard treated as I have described. I think I may 

 assume, therefore, that this would be a reliable annual crop. 

 Some of the vines in the vineyard I have spoken of, bore thirty- 

 five pounds this year. I have estimated twenty pounds to the 

 vine as a full crop, and that will give you in round numbers, 

 seven tons of grapes as the usual crop. 



Now, can anything be more profitable than grape culture ? 

 I have endeavored to show you that grape culture is absolutely 

 certain, under certain conditions. They are conditions within 

 the reach of any man within Massachusetts. That it is more 

 profitable than any other crop is within my experience ; and 

 that it is more sure and constant than any other crop is also 

 within my experience, for I have for many years never failed of 

 a crop. 



Now, how shall we get still better grapes ? for that is the 

 problem before us. Chance seedlings, or grapes bred from 

 tender, though excellent varieties, and inheriting the tender 

 constitutions incident to the family to which they belong, will 

 never do for field culture, though they may do for the amateur. 

 We want yet better grapes, and I think we may have as good 

 grapes as those of any other country in time, if we only go 

 about raising them intelligently from seed. Constant reproduc- 

 tion from seedlings having the indispensable qualities of hardi- 

 hood, vigor of growth, adaptation to the season and vicissitudes 

 of climate, will give us still better grapes than we now possess. 

 I will give you some of the results of my own experience in that 

 direction, in tlie hope that some of you will take up this really 

 national work, that our final success may be more rapidly 

 achieved ; for the seeds of the same grape would show greater 

 variation from the original type when grown in various soils and 



