366 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
esayists. I planted 150 good, strong roots ; divided between 
• 
the Concord, Delaware, Hartford Prolific, Isabella, Muscadine, 
Rebecca, Diana, Marion Port (worthless with me) and Ca¬ 
tawba. Intending to treat them on the “ Cincinnati plan,” I 
set the plants two and a-half feet apart in the rows, and the 
rows three feet apart—a monstrous absurdity when brought to 
the test of my subsequent treatment. I summer-pruned for two 
years according to the Longworthean theory, and my vines 
behaved most gallantly. 
Being infused with an agricultural mania, I purchased a 
farm close bv, and made the most elaborate calculations for 
raising grapes, while my ideal wine cellars were equal to the 
most approved Burgundian grottos; but other pursuits offered 
greater charms, and I finally abandoned the intention of be¬ 
coming the Longwor.h of Wisconsin. In the mean time, how¬ 
ever, I had enlarged my “ vineyard,” by planting one thousand 
Concord vines-; my experience, limited as it was, having 
taught me that where dollars were the object the Concord was 
the best. I planted this thousand on about one-half an acre 
of new land, which I had plowed and cross-plowed. As soon 
as planted, I covered the whole surface to the depth of six 
inches with straw, after putting up a three-slat trellis along 
each row. This was in 1861. As I was engaged in other pur¬ 
suits and it would not pay to employ a man to cultivate the 
vines on so small a scale, I placed straw on them six inches in 
depth each fall, for a covering, and let it remain ; my primary 
object being to smother the grass and weeds. 
For two years, I summer pruned during spare hours, but 
since that time, having been absent from home and not wish¬ 
ing to risk raw hands without superintendence, the vines have 
been left to themselves, costing me little if anything more 
than the straw and the fall pruning or “ cutting back.” Thus 
through necessity, the vines were left to straw as their “ gard¬ 
ener” or “cultivator,” and to Nature for their further care and 
sustenance. This necessity of neglect taught me a valu¬ 
able lesson I should have learned in no other way. With the 
slight exception of summer attention to prevent the vines 
