150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Discussion. — Fruit Culture. 



The President. — Gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture, the 

 time has arrived for the discussion of Fruit Culture. The 

 importance of the subject, I am satisfied, has never been fully 

 estimated, in all its bearings. The importance of early fruits is 

 enough to occupy all the time that can be given to the whole 

 subject. Considering the great variety of soil and climate that 

 we have, so that we may raise almost every kind of fruit, I am 

 happy that we are to enter upon the discussion of this subject, 

 and that we can have the pleasure of listening to the instruction 

 of so able a gentleman as I am now permitted to introduce to 

 you — Hon. E. W. Bull, of Concord. 



Mr. Bull addressed the Board as follows : 



GRAPE CULTURE. 



When I have, on former occasions, had the honor to address 

 you on the subject of grape culture, I have felt obliged to argue 

 the possibility of establishing the vineyard in Massachusetts ; for 

 it was but a short time since the general belief that, though the 

 grape could be made to grow end to yield crops by aid of skill, 

 protection and favorable aspects, it would never succeed in open 

 culture. I need not exhaust either the time or your patience 

 to-day in that argument. The cultivation of the grape in the 

 open air is to-day an assured fact. More than thirty acres are 

 planted in Middlesex County alone, not counting the small 

 holdings, which would probably swell the aggregate to forty 

 acres or more. 



In my immediate vicinity twenty-five acres are planted, five 

 acres this season by a gentleman who had already achieved a 

 complete success with former plantings. 



We have historic record of the grape from periods of the 

 most remote antiquity. Its culture is the poetic phase of hus- 

 l)andry. Poets have sung of it, and statesmen have found it 

 worthy of their attention ; for wherever the grape could be 

 made to thrive, its products rose to the dignity of a commercial 

 staple, and often a whole community derived their whole 

 support from its cultivation. So great is its value, that in the 

 wine countries of Europe, not only are the steep hillsides 

 terraced with great labor and planted with the grape, but even 

 rocky nooks, so hard that they must be broken with the crowbar. 



