The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-02-21
1t will be seen by these

1t will be seen by these tables that both
grapes and pears increase in hearing with
the age of the tree and that the vines are
at about the maximum Of their produce at
their fifth year, exhibiting little greater
Weld at the ninth than the fifth. But
this is not because they can mature no
more, for both vines and pears will bear, If
permitted, to such an excess rs to impair
the quality Of the fruit and the yigor Of
the tree. Any vine of prolific varieties
will, if encouraged, bring at five years old
forty or fifty pounds Of fruit, and increase
as it ages till its produce is told by hun
dred- weights; but such vine must be
allowed a proportionate quantity OF field
room, and it is found by experience that
greatly superior fruit and in little less
abundance is obtained by planting thicker
on the ground, and restricting every vine
to it's allotted number of lunches. The
maximum here allowed in the ninth and
tenth years is eight pounds to each vine,
but the planter might just as easily cut
twice or thrice that weight if he wants
bulk irrespective of quality. Ii certainly
is O secondary object to lis while wine
making is in its infancy, but competition
will very soon be in force to produce the
best wines rather than to fill the largest
cellar, and for any foreign market inferior
grades will scarcely sell at NIL, and never
are so remuneratiye to the grower % the
primer sorts.
The pear table indicates no return till
the third year. 4 few of extra growth in
the second may be allowed to mature, but
the fewer the better for the tree. Begin
ming with an average of seven pears to
each tree in the third year, the crop pro-
gressively increases-but irrcgulariy as the
seasons vary--till in the tenth year hun.
dred pears will be moderate estimate, and
the table is no further extended. But none
of the trees have yet arrived at the maxi
mum of their capacity for bearing, and the
second decade, if it were not too speculative
to look so far, would be found to double the
crop of the first.
Bartlett's are standard trees, and though
all the rest are worked on the ounce they
will become standards too; for if planted
deep enough to bring the line of junction
below the surface the tree will root from
the stem above it, and as standards their
ability for bearing to profusion without
damage to the tree or deterioration to the
fruit will be 30 greatly inci eased that at
twenty years old On average OF bushel
from every tree will not be al extravagant
estimate.
The general result of these calculations,
then, is that such plantation OF less than
twenty acres, embracing fifteen hundred
pear trees and fifteen thousand grape vines,
and leaving out all collateral sources OF
income, as layers, cuttings, and small
fruits, will yield at the third harvest after
planting cash value of $500; and this
income goes on increasing till in the tenth
year it exceeds $4,000, which represents
at ten per cent. interest u principal OF
Sl0G,000 sEa.
1t was the saying of some modern philo--
sopher that he who causes two blades OF
grass to- grow where only one grew before
confers a ben eft on mankind. Then, how
much more does he benefit humanity who
demonstrates that an old-feld, which never
since Powhatan hunted on it brought to its
owner FIVE dollars worth OF produce per
acre above the cost Of tillage, can be con,
yerted into plantatiorthat shall yield $5Oo
per acre at no greater average cost year than.
must be expended in o wheat cropf VINO
can compute the wealth that will inure to
the State in the increased value of land
and its productions, when the example
before US shall be followed generally in
every town in all the counties in the Com"
monwealth And more than these, who can
estimate too highly the moral and social,
the sanitary and financial, improvement
that will be wrought in all classes of our
population when the juice Of the grape
shall supersede ardent spirits rs our ordi-
nary beverage, and our. tables be loaded
with pyramids of its punches for our daily
diet in place of .reeking denominations from
the shambles and slaughter-heuse- when
wine shall be the drink, and grapes the
meat, Of the millions - W. ~