308 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



largely composted with this stuff they call muck, which I 

 like after it has been exposed to the frosts in heaps for some 

 years. Understand, too, that I labor under great disadvan- 

 tages. My land has been used ever since I was born for a 

 nursery, and it is not so good for grapes as new land. I pre- 

 fer land on which grapes have never been grown. I never 

 lay the vines down. I keep the ground free from weeds, 

 pick my grapes when the time comes to pick them, which is 

 usually from the last of September to the first of October. 

 My men go in Avith a market-box, as they would go in to 

 pick pears, and the grapes are picked and put right into the 

 box, " deaconed " a little, — ^}'ou know we have to do it now- 

 a-days, — on the top of the box, as they do strawberries, and 

 sent to market, thirt}^, forty, or fifty pounds in a box ; and 

 these grapes average from five and a half to six cents a 

 pound ; I believe -never but one year less than six, and that 

 was last year. Six to seven cents is a fair average. That is 

 about half what the Doctor's bring, but it is little or no work 

 to grow them. 



Now, I am talking about the Concord. I agree with all 

 the Doctor has said with regard to other varieties. I have 

 tried about everything that has come out, and I do not be- 

 lieve I ever made a dollar with any grape except the Concord ; 

 that is, by growing the fruit. Not that there are not other 

 and better grapes than the Concord. I have said that I 

 would never eat it. I have eaten some few this year. It is 

 not good enough to suit me. There are other grapes that 

 suit me better ; but it is the grape for market. I wish it was 

 a little earlier. I never could keep the Concord for any 

 length of time but it depreciated very much ; and I never 

 kept it a week or two but it had a very unpleasant flavor to 

 me. It is a thin-skinned fruit, and you cannot keep a thin- 

 skinned fruit very well. It will not keep like the Diana, or 

 some of Rog-ers' seedlinsfs that are thick-skinned. It is diffi- 

 cult to send to market on that account. Many of them are 

 bruised by the weight, and they are injured somewhat before 

 they get into the provision store, or on to the hotel tables, or 

 other places. 



This may be a rough way of growing grapes. I do not 

 claim that it is a scientific way, or anything like the system 



