PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 121 



able vine. Such, however, may be sold of the very rai'o sorts to 

 a purchaser present, or one who perfectly understands what he is 

 buying. But such should not be sent out to fill orders. Neither 

 should a stump of a vine, upon which a few roots have been 

 forced to grow in a hot-house pot. No definite rule can be 

 adopted as to the size of vines, because there is a great variation 

 in growth of different varieties. The Isabella, the Catawba, the 

 Concord, the Northern Muscadine, the Hartford Prolific, and some 

 others, are strong-growing, rather coarse, woody vines, which, at 

 two years old, might be twice as large as a good Delaware, Diana, 

 Rebecca, Anna, or some other sort that does not make wood fast 

 while growing. The Delaware, in particular, grows a small, hard, 

 wiry vine, very hardy, and well rooted ; but even this should 

 never be sent out, and never is by an honest nurseryman, when 

 only the size of a rye straw. 



The price of this sort has continued and is likely to continue 

 so high for some years, that propagation has been forced to such 

 a degree by some unscrupulous and some unskillful men, that I 

 do not wonder that the patience as well as confidence of those 

 who have received such is well nigh exhausted, and that they 

 should appeal to some authority for a standard. I cannot say 

 what that standard should be ; but I can say what it is with a 

 a man who, I do most fully believe, is an honest nurseryman. I 

 received this spring, upon order, not by selection, from the great 

 propagating establishment of Dr. C. W. Grant of lona Island, an 

 island in the Hudson, near Peekskill, and the greatest propaga- 

 ting establishment in America, a lot of his No. 1 Delaware vines, 

 every one of which had a cane the size of a pipe stem, with 

 three good eyes, and a bunch of roots which required a hole 

 from twelve to eighteen inches across in which to straighten out 

 the fibers. 



The Diana, the Rebecca, the Anna, the Lenoir, were of the 

 same size and character. The Herbemont, the Concord, the 

 Hartford Prolific, and Canby's August, had canes as large as my 

 smallest finger, with masses of roots. Such Delawares as I 

 bought are $50 a dozen, and from the vigor with which they are 

 starting, I shall expect to get fruit in two years. Now our Ver- 

 mont friend may take such vines as I have described as the 

 standard of No. 1 vines of one good nurseryman. I don't mean 

 to say that all that he sells are of that size, because he sells 

 good, strong-rooted plants with shoots two feet long, of smaller 



