SECRETARY'S REPORT. 169 



ripened the 3d of September. A gentleman in Weston 

 planted a thousand grapes a year ago, and some of the young 

 vines, in hot aspects, ripened grapes this year, the first week in 

 September. Dr. Grant, on his island in the Hudsoii, where the 

 heat is intense, and where the fogs keep off the spring frosts, 

 has lona grapes ripe early in September. Andrew Fuller says 

 they ripen with him, at Brooklyn, New York, on the 15th of 

 September. 



A strong-growing grape like the Concord and Hartford 

 Prolific, if pushed for room, makes too much wood. The whole 

 art of pruning lies in having a proper balance between the root- 

 power and the top. You want bearing wood, and to prune in 

 such a way as not to get long, crooked stems. Your seven 

 hundred and twenty-six vines will give five pounds to the vine 

 the second year. You must take off what is over and above 

 that. The next year you may take ten pounds to the vine ; the 

 third year fifteen, and the fourth twenty, and constantly after 

 that the same. I have known some vines give thirty pounds the 

 third year ; but it is not prudent to impose so heavy a burden 

 upon the vine. You want to crop your vineyard as if it would 

 live forever, for the vine is long lived. 



There are vines which are supposed to be two thousand years 

 old. There is one at Richmond, Va., forty-eight inches in cir- 

 cumference. There is one in Burlington, N. J., which is two 

 feet in diameter. The Patent Office Reports speak of a vine in 

 New Jersey that gave seventy-eight bushels of grapes in one 

 season. From the seven hundred and twenty-six vines you will 

 get about 3,500 pounds for the first crop, and double that the 

 next year, and so on, unless something shall cut them off. The 

 succession of crops of grapes that I have had for sixteen years, 

 without any failure, proves it one of the most constant crojjs we 

 have. 



The best season for pruning is unquestionably November. The 

 tissue is then become fibrous, the grape has fallen, and the 

 leaves also ; and if you prune then, however rudely, the vine 

 closes the tissue so completely that it will not leak sap in the 

 spring. That is one reason why November is the best time to 

 prune. Another is, that so long as the sap continues to move, 

 organizable matter continues to be laid up, which strengthens 

 the buds. If growing for cuttings, I am inclined to think the 

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