AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 273 



A great deal of other interesting matter in relation to grapes 

 was given, and it was resolved to continue the subject next week. 



A writer at Fairfield, Ct., says that a white worm one-fourth 

 of an inch long has located upon his grape-vines, and that the 

 end of every shoot is blighted. " The ' little villain' is coiled 

 up in the leaf. They like sulphur. What shall I do to crush them?" 



The Chairman called up the regular subjects of the day, viz : 

 grape houses, grape culture, and insects in wheat, 



Mr. Pardee, on request, as to the cost of the grape houses, said, 

 that Mr. Suydam, of Geneva, had built one for two hundred 

 dollars, wliich had answered very profitably. Mr. Messer has 

 made them for seventy to two hundred dollars. Catawba grapes 

 were perfectly ripened in them. Dr. Warder, of Cincinnati, 

 whose knowledge of the grapes is great, says the Geneva Cataw- 

 bas were excellent — even superior in sweetness to some raised in 

 Cincinnati, Mr. Suydam's grape house is forty feet in length. 

 I call the notice of the club to subject of a better employment of 

 the yards of our cities. I have several times done so, and I de- 

 sire to repeat it. By a deep and thorough tillage of the ground 

 in our yards, and attention to plants, we can have (say in this 

 city) an immense supply of grapes, apricots, and some other of 

 the richest fruits, and flowers enough to decorate every table and 

 to perfume the air. 



I say this, because we all knovf how very wretched the condi- 

 tion of the ground in our yards is, almost without exception, 

 a mere skin of old soil on a hard, barren subsoil. 



As to the grape houses and culture, we have found Allen's 

 Book on the Grape very useful. 



Mr. Meigs, had seen lately at Bedford, Long Island, on the 

 southerly side of a wooden building, inhabited by Charles A. 

 Meigs, an apricot spread on trellis wliose apricots are estimated 

 to about 2000 or 3000, and in perfect liealth. 



Prof. Mapes — I have 1200 grape vines which I set out when 

 they were three years old. I made lioles for them 4 feet Avide 

 and 4 feet deep, filled in with surface, soil, and suital)le manure. 

 I set the vines on the northerly sides of the holes, to enable me 

 to run a plow along near them without disturbing the roots, 

 which of course were extended chiefly southerly through tlio soil 

 in their holes. I disturbed the ground a little where the vines 

 stand to retain such fluid fertilizers as should be applied — as well 

 as the rain water, but not to hold tlie water long, tliat would be 



[Am. Inst.] 18 



