116 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The Committee examined, with much pleasure, a peach orch- 

 ard of three hundred trees, entered for exhibition only, by John 

 B. Moore, of Concord. The trees have been set two years, and 

 are three years from the bud. The foliage on them was large 

 and high-colored, the trees symmetrical in form, and had every 

 appearance of health and vigor. They stand on a sandy loam, 

 like that upon which his grape-vines are set. 



As the value of this Report will chiefly consist in the state- 

 ments made by the competitors, the Committee refer the reader 

 to them for full and clear descriptions of their modes of culture, 

 and the results which they bring. 



John Cummings, Chairman. 



Statement of John B. Moore. 



In offering my vineyards for the Society's premium I desire 

 to call attention more particularly to the lot directly back and 

 north of my house. Aspect, a very slight inclination to the 

 south ; soil, light sandy loam, underlaid with a hard red gravel, 

 full of cobble-stones. In the year 1864 the wood was cut from 

 this land, which had formerly been used as a rye field for many 

 years, and was composed of a small growth of pitch-pine, white 

 birch, and scrub oak. After the wood was removed the land 

 would not have sold for more than $15.00 an acre. 



The brush was burned and the lot ploughed as well as possi- 

 ble where full of scrub oak roots and stumps, and then planted 

 for two years, principally with melons and squashes, and ma- 

 nured in the hill only. 



In the spring of 1867 I planted on this lot five hundred Con- 

 cord grape-vines, one year old from the cutting, which have been 

 trained on large stakes ; also two hundred more of the Con- 

 cords, and two hundred Hartford Prolific vines, which have been 

 trained on a wire trellis. The Hartford Prolific vines were nearly 

 rained by the last two severe winters ; although laid down and 

 covered with soil, the tops came out all right in the spring, but 

 the roots were mostly killed or injured by the severe freezing. 

 I shall be obliged to remove most of them and plant Concords 

 in their places. 



When these vines were planted, in the spring of 1867, there 

 had not been any matmre applied to the soil, except the manure 

 in the hills for melons and squashes, before mentioned, and 



