240 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



is a private affair of my own — others may try it. I have said little of the 

 two or three different kinds of rot, mildew or blight, and I have no remedy 

 to offer. When a drunkard has the delirium tremens you cannot prevent 

 his seeing sights — such sights ! 



I gladly leave the debatable ground and turn to the subject of propaga- 

 tion. There are various methods. 



FIRST, OF CUTTIXGS. 



These should be from ripe one-year old wood. Dig a trench in spaded 

 ground, slanting to the surface, the length of the cuttings. Place them 

 five or six inches apart, the top eye just above the ground. Cover the 

 lower joints with rich mold, and fill up with soil from the trench. They 

 should be cut back the second year to two eyes and treated as before, and 

 at the close of the j^ear they will make number one roots. The above direc- 

 tion is from Mr. Buchanan's book. 



SECOND, BY LAYERIXG. 



" This is Mr. Husmann's method. In the spring, before the bud starts, 

 make a bed of fine mold under your vines (in tlie row), then take canes of 

 last year's growth, prune off all dry and imperfect wood, and fasten them 

 down by wooden hoops. Let them remain till the buds have sprouted, say 

 six or eight inches long ; then fill fine mold around the shoots an inch deep ; 

 and, after two or three weeks, fill up another inch. They will strike roots 

 readily, and make splendid vines for next spring's planting. A good vine 

 treated in this manner will make from thirty to fifty plants in a season. 

 The same process is often followed with the young shoots during June and 

 July. For the latter purpose, all the suckers should be left on the vine you 

 wish to layer, and the ends of the leading shoots pinched off. To force the 

 laterals into stronger growth, the former method, however, makes the best 

 plants." Several grape-growers told me that layers from two-year old 

 make much the best roots. 



BY EYES IN PROPAGATING HOUSE. 



Mr. Phoenix says : " Our propagating house is a triple row, each thir- 

 teen feet wide and one hundred feet long-, walls of brick, and heated with 

 hot water-pipes from Hitching's steam boiler. We prefer plants from sin- 

 gle eyes, turned out in good borders in May and June, staked, and laterals 

 pinched in to secure a single well-matured cane. This makes the most 

 perfect plants in the world, with immense roots, and a perfect maturity 

 of and entireness throughout that cannot so well be secured by layers." 



Another method I give by Mr. Husmann. It seems more complete ; it 

 will be seen they differ — others must judge. However, one must always 

 remember that the prairie soil works marvels. 



" A hot-bed is to be prepared as follows : Dig a pit from two to two and 

 a half feet deep, then put on from twelve to eighteen inches of strong 

 manure ; on this put from eight to twelve inches of well-pulverized soil ; 

 then make a layer of short moss, in which insert the buds in a slanting 

 position. They are prepared in the following manner: Take well-ripened 

 wood and cut it into single eyes, leaving about half an inch of wood above 

 and below the bud. Kinds that have very hard wood will root more readily 

 if cut a week or two before, put into a box, covered with sand, and left in 



