114 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



From the success that has already attended the trial of early American ffrnpes, we 

 may reasonably hope, in the immediate future, to see grapes mature in all parts of the 

 State, where Indian corn ripens in average seasons. We find native vines bearing 

 fruit on the banks of the rivers north of the 4.5th parallel and five hundred feet above 

 tide water. Then why not plant the better early varieties in sheltered gardens ? 



Grape vines grow and bear abundantly almost without care or method, will endure 

 under adverse conditions, and survive under much foolish manipulation. When you 

 are generating your next clap of thunder, please use any ideas you may have brought 

 away from my grounds to enforce anj' point of advice or encouragement to those who 

 ought to plant vines. General directions can be condensed into ten minutes in a garden, 

 or a few plain words. 



Begin by planting in a dry soil, well drained naturally or ai-lificially ; a common 

 kitchen garden or a good corn-field is rich enough. Train a vine spirally three times 

 around two stakes, drive a nail and tie the vine with a string. Daring summer pinch 

 off the ends of branche3 as they grow beyond the limits you assign to it. After the 

 leaves fall in autumn, prune it, cut loose from the stakes, press it down to the ground 

 in a coil around the stakes; cover lightlj- with strawy manure or potatoe tops or ever- 

 green boughs. Put it up in April or ^Iiy. Or plant vines on the cast or south side of 

 a bank wall, or board fence, training the vine horizontally within three or four feet 

 of the ground. Set a few stakes to support it, or set up a simple frame and let your 

 vines form for you a shady garden arbor; or let a vine spread itself over your doorway 

 or in front of your piazza. Plant out twenty kinds, some in each of the positions 

 above indicated, and in each coming year plant other varie'.ies. 



Such is the advice I would have you give concerning grapes ; for there is no fruit 

 that gives quicker or more constant returns, none so flexile for embellishment about 

 A home ; none that gives more satisfaction during the growing season, or at its termina- 

 tion in the final utilitarian balance. Go on, my dear Sir, in the way you have 

 indicated. Enlist all the young men in the good work, and we old 'uns at our firesides 

 or under our vines and trees will put up our best wishes for the greatest good to attend 

 your effort: — for you persouall}', and for all the people — financially, physically, jesthcti- 

 ■xally, through all time. 



Believe me, your obedient servant, 



CALVIN CHAMBERLAIN. 



Voted, That the subject of Grape Culture be held open for further 

 •consideration at the next meeting. 



Votes of thanks were passed to Mr. Goodale, Judge Gilbert 

 and Dr. Weston, for their valuable papers presented at tliis ses- 

 sion; to the railroads of the State for the courtesy of free return 

 tickets ; and to the newspapers of the city and State for the 

 gratuitous publication of the programme and proceedings, and 

 after a iew minutes spent in social intercourse the Convention 

 adjourned without day, thus closing the record of a most success- 

 ful, harmonious, and, it is believed, useful session. 



