SECRETARY'S REPORT. 325 



Your Committee believe the grape crop to be one of the 

 surest and most reliable of all fruit crops, if hardy varieties arc 

 grown ; and that the general belief that it requires peculiar 

 skill to grow them successfully is not sustained l)y experienced 

 On the contrary, instances within our knowledge prove that no 

 fruit crop is more easily grown, or will bear more neglect, pro- 

 vided the essential elements of success — heat, shelter, warm and 

 dry soil — are present. Trenching and manuring are unnecessary 

 and often injurious ; they arc, however, advisable for slow-grow- 

 ing and feeble sorts of grape ; but these sorts are only suited to 

 the garden and the amateur, and the conditions before mentioned 

 must be present to insure success. 



Hardy varieties of grapes are those which will bear the vicis- 

 situdes of our climate, the rigors of our winters, without protec- 

 tion, under all ordinary circumstances. No grape can be 

 considered hardy which requires protection, and no grape which 

 requires protection can be profitably grown in field culture, on 

 the large scale, that is to say, because it involves too much 

 expense and lal)or at that season of the year when all our time 

 is engrossed with the late harvests and preparation for winter. 



Grapes — with the exception before named — should not be 

 grown in too rich a soil. , The experience of ages proves that 

 poor soils, if warm and dry, are better for the grape than rich 

 ones. The finest grapes of the " Cotd d'or " grow on a soil 

 consisting of decomposed granite. The famous Chateau 

 Margaux has a gravelly soil, with only six and three-quarters 

 per cent, of organic matter, with three and one-quarter per cent, 

 of peroxide of iron, one and one-quarter per cent, of potash, and 

 one and- one-half of clay. Mr. Griffith, at the fruit-growers con- 

 vention, in "Western New York, says : " Few kinds of grapes 

 will grow on a strong soil. A poor, dry soil is best for all grapes 

 but the Delaware." His oldest vineyard has borne for fourteen 

 successive years ; the soil has had no manure for twenty-two 

 years ; he believes his vineyard will last twenty years more 

 without manure ; soil, gravel and loam ; a light corn soil. 



In regard to pruning, your Committee would recommend, as 

 they have always done, the system called spur pruning, as the 

 most certain to produce an early and good crop, and the least 

 exhaustive of the strength of the vine. They still believe 

 November to be the best month for pruning, unless the vine be 



