168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



incessant toil. Suppose he has an acre of grapes, it will not 

 lessen the working capital necessary for his farm. The light 

 labors of the vineyard can be performed by the females and 

 children of his family — by invalids, even. It needs no manure 

 after the first year ; his farm crops are not, therefore, stinted, 

 and the jocund harvest brings him, possibly, $2,000, certainly, 

 f 500. What " infinite possibilities " lie in a clear income of 

 $500 per year. Nothing gives me so much pleasure as to think 

 that manhood itself may be benefited in that way. 



THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 



The Board met, agreeably to adjournment, at half-past two 

 o'clock. 



The President announced that the subject for discussion was 

 still Fruit Culture. 



Hon. E. W. Bull, of Concord. — I find that some of my col- 

 leagues did not understand me, as to the distance at which I 

 would plant the grape. The distance I allow is six by ten feet ; 

 that is sixty square feet to a vine, giving seven hundred and 

 twenty-six vines to the acre. There has been some doubt 

 expressed, also, as to whether it is really best to have the rows 

 run north and south. If your rows run north and south, they 

 make considerable protection for each other against the east and 

 west winds ; and then again, the morning sun does not have 

 much force in its beams. If the heat falls upon the plants about 

 ten o'clock, the earth between the rows is open to receive the 

 heat ; and from ten, A. M., to three, P. M., there will be a hot 

 sun upon the espaliers, and upon the space underneath, heating 

 the grape to a considerable degree. A friend of mine, being 

 out hunting on the 27th of July, found some perfectly ripe 

 grapes on a vine growing upon a wall running north and south, 

 and meeting another wall running east and west, so as to 

 protect the vine and give it great heat. That vine was taken 

 up and transferred to another place, when it ripened only as 

 other vines do, later in the season. This shows that the shel- 

 tered and heated places are best. I have had the thermometer 

 rise to 130*^ on the ground under the vines, although in the 

 shade it rose only to 100° ; and in a season when the corn leaves 

 rolled up with the heat, the grapes did not suffer at all, but 

 were larger and better than ever before. The earliest bunches 



