THE GRAPE IN KANSAS. 



MR. MARSHALL: You can make the solution of copper sulphate; dry-slake 

 jour lime. 



EDWIN TAYLOR: You must use more lime than is ordinarily used with the 

 Bordeaux mixture. 



MR. MARSHALL : You use about two pounds of copper sulphate to a bushel of 

 lime. All the lime is for is to carry your Bordeaux. It will take perhaps a barrel 

 of water to slake a bushel of lime. I suppose a gallon of water would perhaps 

 take up two pounds of sulphate in solution. The water only takes up a small 

 amount of lime in proportion to water used. I happen to have one of those dust 

 sprayers that Mr. Chandler is talking about. I cannot recall the name of it. 

 The instructions that came with it were, to make a solution of copper sulphate, 

 then add lime, and then let it complete the slaking in the air if necessary. I 

 could not see how to keep up the relative proportions of sulphate of copper. I 

 was not familiar enough with the action of the lime and copper to know just 

 what proportion it would take to destroy. The dust is death to you as well as to 

 the insects, and a man to use it ought to have neither eyes, nose, or mouth. I 

 had some web-worms, and I thought I would try this dust on them. I went out 

 with this mixture, but, in order to throw it up into the trees, the wind will have 

 to be blowing pretty strong. 



MAJOR HOLSINGER : The inhalation of this mixture can be avoided by placing 

 a wet sponge over the nostrils. This prevents the unhealthful part of it. 



PRACTICAL METHODS IN GROWING GRAPES. 



Experience has taught me that labor expended in preparation of the soil be- 

 fore planting pays best; therefore I would grow some hoed crop upon the soil be- 

 fore planting trees or vines, unless I had a clover sod to use for the purpose, 

 which furnishes the best foundation for plant growth, the roots of the plant 

 loosening and aerating the soil, and storing up the very elements needed. 



In our section we plant vines in rows nine feet apart, and ten feet apart in the 

 row for free-growing kinds, such as the Concord, Worden, Moore's Early, and 

 Niagara. Varieties like the Delaware and Green Mountain can be planted eight 

 by eight. Care should be taken to secure vigorous, well-grown vines, preferably 

 two years old, clean and free from mildew or fungus. Mark the ground ten feet 

 apart the opposite way from what you want the rows to run, then with a two- 

 horse plow mark the rows for planting nine feet apart, going twice in a row and 

 plowing as deep as you can ( presuming that the land has been deeply and thor- 

 oughly plowed previously), so that in setting the vine it can have some loose soil 

 under it; and I want to set the vine at least six inches deep, so that the after- 

 cultivation will not disturb the roots, and a dirt mulch of three or four inches can 

 be kept over the roots to conserve the moisture. 



Before planting the vine trim off all superfluous wood, and leave only three or 

 four buds to grow. As some hoed crop is supposed to be raised the first year 

 (but never a sowed crop), it is well to stake the vines, to prevent injury, and if 

 vigorous growth is made it can be tied to the stake. The vine is now left until 

 winter, usually February, when the strongest cane is tied to the stake, all side 

 shoots cut off, and top shortened to five and a half or six feet. All other canes are 

 cut close to the vines, and all shoots that start from them broken off. If any 

 fruit should set the second year it is best to remove it, and let the strength of the 

 vine go to production of wood. In the fall of the second season, or the spring of 

 the third season, we set the posts in the rows, leaving two vines between posts. 



