SECRETARY'S REPORT. 175 



other slops about them when the vines are growing. When the 

 vine is large, it is a good practice. 



Dr. Miller. — If you were to cultivate a garden grape, would 

 you plant it near a cess-pool ? 



Mr. Bull. — There might he circumstances where I should be 

 compelled to do it. In that event, I would plant as far from it 

 as possible, so that the sharp points of the little rootlets would 

 take up homeopathic doses ; but the vine would grow too fast, 

 the wood be immature, the crop late. 



Col. P. W. Taft, of Worcester. — I set a vine close to a cess- 

 pool ; it grew very vigorously and had a very heavy crop of 

 grapes ; but it continued to grow till the frosts set in, and the 

 whole of the last year's growth was killed entirely. I would 

 not recommend to any one to set a vine near such a place if they 

 had any other. 



Mr. Bull. — We know that wool waste has been recommended 

 as a manure for the grape ; and Mr. Simpson, of Saxonville, has 

 had eminent success in using it. His experience was so promis- 

 ing that I bought some wool waste, and after using it on my 

 hot-house border, I had it taken to a patch of seedling grapes, 

 where I wanted to get as much growth as possible, and had it 

 worked in lightly. Those vines scarcely lived through the next 

 summer, and were in a bad condition ; and I found that all the 

 roots they had at the time of putting on the wool waste, were 

 dead and rotted. Where the sweet soil above the wool was, 

 they put out a circle of roots like the spokes of a wheel. I cut 

 out the dead roots, and the vines now continue to grow. Grapes 

 like mineral, but are impatient of gross manures. The ancients 

 knew all this, and you will find it in their writings. In some 

 municipalities in Spain they have special enactments against 

 manuring, lest it impair the flavor of the grape. But time and 

 patience, and such manures as I have mentioned, are indispen- 

 sable ; gross manues are never safe. If the leaching of the gross 

 manures reaches the roots they will die. 



Mr. Earle. — How did your grape vines endure the severe 

 winters of 1861 and 1862 ? 



Mr. Bull. — I have not lost any of the Concords, even of the 

 seedlings, which I never protected at any time. I had an 

 Isabella, which, in the severe winters of 1857, 1858, and 1859, 

 was killed. My position is unfavorable for the grape. It is in 



