392 Wisconsin state agricultural society. 
I would not be understood to represent the raising of this deli¬ 
cious fruit as free from discouragements and disappointments, for 
they are to be met in this as in all other human efforts. The root 
we set with so much care will sometimes fail, the bud be weak, 
and the growth feeble, diseases and insects are to be met and 
fought, but all these we must encounter in any attempt to raise 
fruit, no more with the grape than others, and in our state much 
less than in most localities. 
It may be objected that what has been named as necessary to 
successfully grow the grape, will require much time and labor. 
For vineyard cultivation this would be true, but for the garden it 
need not be so. An hour to-day, a half hour to-morrow, that might 
not be given to any other definite object, and thus on through 
the season, and all has been done that has been enumerated, and 
what at first seemed labor has become a pleasant recreation. 
One of the greatest needs in our state to-day is a supply of fruit, 
and while waiting for the growth of the orchard and for the suc¬ 
cessful apple, our chief dependence must be upon the small fruits, 
each of these has its appropriate place and season; none of them 
could be spared, and all should be raised to a limit of our wants. 
But most of them ripen early in the summer and their season con¬ 
tinues but a few weeks at most. The grape should supplant all 
these, closing up the fruit season with its profusion of varieties. 
It should be found in every home. The farmer with his plentiful 
acres cannot afford to be without it, while the laborer, mechanic 
or professional man in village or city should find at least a corner 
in which to grow a vine in some form. Only a few square feet of 
earth will grow it on the upright trellis or stake, and better in 
that form than none at all. The coming spring is the time to be¬ 
gin if you have not already planted, for if you delay you are certain 
to lose a year in the growth of your vine, and one season’s fruit. 
A further inducement is, that few plants will so fully re¬ 
pay your labor and care. It bears fruit at three or four years of 
age, and continues to improve in quality and quantity with each 
succeeding year. 
Again you may be planting for others to gather the harvest in 
the far distant future, for the vine lives to a great age. In Italy 
the vine yard of a hundred years is spoken of as young. 
