240 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. . 



acre, worth, at ten cents the pound, fourteen hundred dollars. 

 If we deduct one-half, even — although we know these figures 

 have been exceeded for three successive seasons, — we still have 

 an annual income of seven hundred dollars from an acre of 

 vines, an income which would cover the expense of even 

 extravagant culture, and still give larger profits than any other 

 crop we raise. 



To this we only add that the grape-harvest does not take 

 from the labors of the farm the strong hands wanted for other 

 harvests, but may be gathered by old and young, invalids even, 

 who, jocund and glad, make of it sport rather than labor. 



ERRORS IN PROPAGATION. 



In this direction, perhaps, lies the most danger to our coming 

 vineyards ; for vines propagated from feeble or unripe wood, or 

 even from ripe wood, if from single buds, in heat, under glass, 

 will not be so strong nor so hardy of constitution as those 

 raised in the open air from strong cuttings. This is simple 

 common sense. We do not breed from weak animals, still 

 less from those too young. Does the grafter take his scions 

 from trees which are weak, or the farmer his seeds from weak 

 plants ? . 



Does not the first, rather, go long distances to obtain, from 

 .the best and most vigorous trees, the best scions which they 

 fbear ? and the farmer, also, from his neighbor's well-ripened 

 ;seeds from strong plants, if all his own are weak ? Certainly, 

 this is the practice of ages ; the ancients were not content with 

 less than the best and most fertile cuttings from the best and 

 most productive vines. 



They selected even those cuttings which ripened their fruit 

 .the earliest ; and they maintained that the early maturity of the 

 fruit was advanced by this means, and its culture thus made 

 possible in less favorable localities ; and they were unquestion- 

 ably right, for the practice prevails down to this day. 



Now, if from vines which abound in field culture, they select 

 only the best and earliest wood, and find it necessary to do so, 

 even in their fine climate so suited to the grape, how much 

 more important must it be for us, in our rough climate and 

 changeful seasons, to propagate only from thq most vigorous 

 wood, as well as the most early. A single week will often make 



