PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 201 



several grafts inserted by splitting the vine, but that is not so apt to make 

 good vines. 



Adjourned. Johh W. Chambers, Secretary. 



December 8, 18G3. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair. 



Grape Culture. 



Mr. S. B. Nichols, Vine Cottage, Hammondton, Atlantic county, N. J., 

 writes as follows ; 



" I am a beginner in grape culture, having some 700 vines in the ground, 

 mostly Delawares. The first lot of 100 were set out in the spring of 1862, 

 the balance last spring. Most of them made a fine growth of well-ripened 

 wood, but all varieties — including Diana, Anna, Union Village, Lincoln, 

 Isabella and Catawba — lost their foliage, and those that had fruit failed to 

 ripen. The month of July was unusually wet and hot, raining almost 

 everyday. My vines were all struck with mildew about the 1st of August. 

 The Concord was the only variety which held its foliage. All varieties 

 were struck with rot throughout our settlement. In some localities the 

 Concord rotted very badly, in others hardly a show of rot. I had some 

 twenty bunches of Delawares which ripened on two-year-old vines. My 

 soil is a sandy loam, with a clay subsoil. Would under-draining be an 

 advantage to my vineyard, and prevent, in a measure, the rot another 

 season? Many thousand vines have been set out here in the last two 

 years, and many more would be put out another season if we were certaia 

 of a crop. Our strawberry and blackberry crops this year, were tip-top, 

 and many thousand plants have been and are being set out. You will 

 recollect that our settlement is some five years old, made up of New 

 England and Northern people. Please bring this matter before the 

 Farmers' Club, so that any information you may have will be of benefit to 

 us another season." 



Mr A. S. Fuller. — I should not suppose that such land as he describes 

 would require, or be materilly benefitted by under-draining. If water 

 stands upon the surface it must be taken off, else he cannot grow grapes. 

 Perhaps the difiiculty was owing to the extremely wet weather in July. 

 At that very time we were suffering from a drouth that parched up every- 

 thing. This man commits an error in trying to get fruit from two-year-old 

 vines. I have known young vines materially injured by allowing them to 

 overbear. One man last summer allowed a young Delaware vine to bear 

 250 bunches. The consequence was that he did not get a single buch fit 

 to eat ; and beside that, he put back the bearing power of the vine for 

 future years. One of the secrets of success with grapes is close pruning 

 of both wood and fruit. With careful cultivation there is not much danger 

 of mildew or rot. I had but one sort to suffer this year, and that was a 

 neglected Herbemont — neglected because I do not consider it worth car- 

 ing for. With proper soil and care in pruning and thinning the fruit, there 

 is not much difficulty in growing an^' variety of grapes in this vicinity. 

 One thing people should learn and practice — that is, never let a young 

 vine produce fruit. We attempt by a system of forced culture to get 

 grapes from vines three years old. A wild vine never produces at that 

 age, but it does at a very old age. Wherever mildew occurs, it may be 



