506 [Assembly 



But art can be used in our zone to produce great amounts of delight- 

 ful fruit of various climates, and at a reasonable expense. I beg 

 leave to describe a vinery which, at our summer residence on the 

 Hudson, we have constructed without artificial heat — which yields 

 some bunches of foreign grapes upwards of two feet long, and weigh- 

 ing six pounds a bunch. This Institute has granted a premium for 

 them. This conservatory is built of a frame work, curved on the 

 summit, covered entirely with strong glass. It stands north and south, 

 and so that it receives the rays of the sun all day. This conservatory 

 is supported by rows of posts, which form so many supports for the 

 vines. At the bottom of the edifice, all around it, arc boards or planks 

 on hinges, which can be raised at pleasure, to admit air along the sur- 

 face of the soil ; no wall at the foundation to prevent the vines from 

 running out of the conservatory into the adjacent land ; on the top 

 of the building, similar boards or planks capable of being opened at 

 will to suffer air to escape. This becomes often necessary on account 

 of our own hot sunshine. We have found the interior as cool or 

 rather more cool than the open air; so great is the ventilation resulting 

 from the arrangement just named. We have found the growth of 

 vines outside to be from three to four feet in length — same sort inside 

 grew ten, fifteen and even seventeen feet in a year. In the second 

 year, the outside vine grew from five to ten feet from the one bud left 

 near the ground, and covered with earth during winter, while those 

 inside grew to from t wenty-five to thirty feet. This glass edifice makes, 

 in truth, summer of from six to seven months long, which enables us 

 to raise our foreign grapes to perfection, while such is the character 

 of our climate, frost often leaves us a summer of only three months. 

 In the second year the vines set some fruit j we let only one bunch 

 grow, in order by thut to ascertain the variety of the fruit. In the 

 third year we find twenty to thirty bunches set, of which we permit a 

 half a dozen only to mature. In the fourth year we let it double or 

 treble that amount — still we take away some. Vegetation requires 

 the auxiliaries of science as well as industry. Italy, so famed for her 

 grapes, would lose the premiums at our fruit conventions, for New- 

 Bedford, Boston, New- York, and many other conservatories, can take 

 them away. 



