324 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



« 



500,000 vines annually, and that the cultivation of ihe grape has 

 become so extensive, and the demand for vines so large, that 

 the nurserymen find their immense stock altogether insufficient 

 to supply the market. 



Your Committee assume, as an established fact, that the grape 

 may be grown in field or vineyard culture in Massachusetts with 

 profitable results, and are gratified that they are able to state, 

 that the cultivation of the grape, even in this abnormal season, 

 has yielded so large profits that many are planting new vine- 

 yards, many acres of them in Middlesex alone. 



Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances of the early spring, 

 the subsequent season was all that could be desired for the 

 grape. Intense heats, absence of rains and fogs, and an unusu- 

 ally fine autumn, ripened the crop to a perfection rarely wit- 

 nessed ; and even grapes of delicate constitution, and those 

 which generally ripen too late for our climate, grew up to their 

 finest condition, so that an intelligent judgment could be arrived 

 at as to their comparative quality and value. 



True, the results were various, some kinds doing well in one 

 locality and failing in another, while some which failed in one 

 instance succeeded in another, upsetting all general rules in the 

 case, unless, indeed, diverse soils and treatment of the vine 

 uncovered, as in some instances they did, the reason of the 

 difference. But these circumstances were of great value to the 

 vine-grower, who was thus forced to observe the best modes of 

 culture, and kinds of soil and aspect, and what grapes are most 

 certain to succeed, and to give him a remunerating crop for his 

 outlay. This leads your Committee to observe that in no coun- 

 try in the world is there any one grape which will produce 

 grapes and wine, especially the latter, of equal quality, in 

 various localities ; though the vineyards may be divided only by 

 a wall, or foot-paths even. Difference of soil, of aspect, mois- 

 ture, protection, &c., will have so great effect upon the quality 

 of the grape and its vinous product, that it can hardly be recog- 

 nized as tlie same grape. Where this happens, other grapes 

 often give better fruit and wine, being, from some mysterious 

 cause, better adapted to the peculiar soil, &c., of the location. 

 We need, therefore, many kinds of grapes, and your Committee 

 hail with pleasure every new seedling which promises to increase 

 the list of good grapes, and supply the need just indicated. 



