COMMUNICATIONS—GRAPE CULTURE. 
367 
from covering the ground too thickly, thus smothering the 
fruit in some cases, and keeping out the air, sunlight, etc., my 
vines have had all the care and attention they, needed, ; and 
they have fruited heavier than ever before, the fruit being 
sweeter, and ripening earlier. The report of the Commissioner 
of Agriculture gives the last week of September as the period 
of ripening the Concord, even from 400 to 600 miles south of 
this, while my Concords, in some places, were fit for the palate 
the last week in August, the past season, and were actually all 
gone before the last week in September. I attribute this, not 
to any natural advantage, but to the effect of the straw mulch¬ 
ing. 
The following are some of the most important benefits de¬ 
rived from this system of cultivation : 
1st. The straw, if sufficiently compact, will smother weeds 
and grass, and prevent the necessity of stirring the soil, or dis¬ 
turbing the rootlets. 
2d. It favors an equilibrium of temperature, and this pre¬ 
vents what is termed “sun scald,” in any locality. 
Although on a southern slope, facing the reflection of the 
lake, with a dry, hard baked soil, I have never noticed the 
least tendency to “sun scald ” in my vineyard, and have never 
suffered from late frosts in the spring or early frosts in the fall. 
This escape also should be attributed to the straw mulch; as 
on the one hand, it retards the thawing out of the ground, and 
the starting of the buds in the spring, keeping back the fruit- 
settings and shoots until the danger from frosts is passed; and 
on the other, when the weather becomes warm, it absorbs and 
retains the heat of the sun’s rays, and by giving out this 
warmth during the cool of the day and part, if not all, of the 
night, it acts as an artificial thermal stimulant, and hastens for¬ 
ward the growth of vine and maturity of fruit, so that they not 
only make up for the set back of early spring, but gain two 
weeks in time of ripening over the same varieties treated in the 
usual way. 
3d. It keeps the surface of the soil damp in the dryest of 
weather, and prevents a too rapid evaporation. 
