CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



33 



danger in vigorous orchards of carry- 

 ing the cultivation so far that nearly 

 all the energies of the tree will l^e 

 directed to the production of wood. 

 The growei- must deterniine the culture 

 which shall meet his requirements. Jt 

 is true that in the great majority of 

 cases, however, the culture is inade- 

 quate. Barn yard manure, when it can 

 be spared, is valuable for the bearing 

 orchard. 



Trees in Grass. 

 Pekmanent sod is an injury to the 

 orchard. This has been proved in the 

 experience of nearly every successful 

 oichardist. It is forcibly illustrated 

 in the instance of the old College 

 orchard. In the earlier experiments 

 conducted by Dr. Beal the same fact 

 was emphasized. For some years he 



kept a part of the trees in sod, others 

 were cultivated thoroughly, while still 

 others were cultivated at varying dis 

 tances from the body of the tree. 

 Kven as early as 1874 he found that 

 " trees in grass made less growth, 

 looked yellow in foliage, and bore 

 smaller fruit and apparently less of 

 it." In 1875 he observed that "the 

 evidences look more and more strongly 

 every year against the propriety of 

 leaving trees, in our section, in grass. 

 They have stood the severe winters no 

 better ; they have borne no better ; the 

 apples are smaller ; the trees grow more 

 slowly ; a greater proportion of trees 

 have died than of those cultivated each 

 year. So marked have been the re 

 suits that we have plowed up about 

 half that part of the orchard which 

 was left in grass." — L. N. Bailey, in 

 Bulletin 31, Ayric. Coli., Mich. 



THE VINEYARD. 



Early Grapes. 



I FIND that sometimes one grape and 

 sometimes another will come out ahead, 

 according to the season. Usually the 

 Brighton is considerably ahead of the 

 Delaware here. But the Brighton re- 

 quires a warmer season than the Dela- 

 ware, and this year hung back and was 

 not even " a good second " to it. The 

 Tolman (otherwise " Champion," and 

 " Beaconsheld ") is positively the ear 

 liest grape in any season, but can never 

 claim rank as a dessert grape, though 

 very good for jelly making. I prefer 

 it to Hartford. Israella is a very good 

 and early grape. Eumelan is about 

 with it, but has a straggling cluster. 

 Moore's Early is just an early Concord 

 in quality, with a snialler cluster and a 

 larger berry, In quality the Brighton 

 is ahead of everything, and in a warm 

 year is as early as any but Tolman. 

 Salera does fairly with me. — T. If- 

 Hoskins, M.D., Orleans county, Vt., iu 

 Farm and Home. 



Fertilizers For Grapes. 



Possibly aside fron) our changeable 

 climate one reason why the grape vine 

 is often diseased in this country is 

 from neglect in properly fertilizing it. 

 The stable manures connnonly used 

 have an excess of carbonaceous matter, 

 and are, besides, too strongly nitrogen- 

 ous in proportion to their mineral 

 elements. The grape \ine is a liberal 

 feeder, but this kind of manure makes 

 it run too much to vino without fur- 

 nishing the material for making fruit. 

 Some kinds of grapes always set too 

 heavily, often three and even four 

 clusters in the present year's shoot. 

 Think how many berries there are in 

 each of these, and one to three seeds in 

 every grape. In elaborating the seed 

 the vine requires plenty of potash and 

 some phosphate. In the fruit these 

 minerals are also found, the potash 

 being especially necessary in changing 

 the green acid pulp of the unripened 

 grape to the luscious clusters which 



