The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1905-03-10
ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS IN GRAPE
GROWING.
Paper Read by M. H. Pugsley at Midwinter
Meeting of State Horticultural society,
Paw Paw, February @3.

the western part of the township, is a
young man. Twenty years ago he
did not have a grape vine or a place TO
set ii if he found one.
His father had a few vines in his
garden 40 years ago. There were
perhaps a dozen of them which he
cared for in what was then a thor
oughly up-to-date manner. And the
luscious fruit was fully appreciated
by his boys and his neighbors' boys.
To the latter fact l can testify to a
certainty.
About that time our pioneer settled
in that vicinity-in a cradle, and if
you can find birthmark on him any
where, will guarantee it resembles
a large bunch of Concords "well
shouldered And he was born with
an appetite" for the business.
A few years later our pioneer began
to show symptoms of a desire to do
business for himself. His nearest
neighbor, an old gentleman who al
ways took a kindly interest in the
boys and girls about him, near
sighted as he was, could straighten
bend in corn row with his back to
the marker, or discover a pig-weed 40
rods away.
If he went to town, which he did
quite frequently, apparently as much
to accommodate his neighbors as for
his own business-he would select a
rainy morning when it was too wet to
work out of doors; and he was always
at home again as soon as 'old Bill"
could get there, doing errands for the
neighbors and leaving kind words
and Sunday school papers with the
youngsters along the way But l am
leaving my pioneer and making
another man the hero of my story.
l started TO say that when our pio-
neer was ready TO do business for him
self, he bought a good piece of land,
the best he could obtain, upon which
TO exhibit the peculiar birthmark that
was upon him; land that had grown
good crops of wheat and corn for sew
eral years in succession. Some one
is thinking just now that wheat after
wheat does not improve the condition
of the soil or add 60 its fertility. But
the vineyards that furnish the biggest
crops for this market are Upon land
that was growing 25 to 80 bushels of
wheat to the acre, when it was worth
from - to So. 25 per bushel. And the
business was continued, unheeding
the circumstances which controlled
the prices, until the average crop was
10 bushels per acre and the price was
so cents. How these same fields,
which have not been especially fer
tilted for the purpose, can produce
such immense crops of grapes, l leave
for these gentlemen who are posted in
agricultural chemistry to explain.
He bought good land; and as he
commenced putting out a few vines
the kind hearted but nearsighted old
gentleman said, that's just the bust
ness for him, for he likes TO putter."
The neighbor was growing wheat,
corn and potatoes, and growing old.
Getting in a fine crop of clover hay
early enough to turn the sod, raise
beans, 20 bushels per acre, pull them
by hand, stack them around a pole,
SOW the ground TO wheat and then
thresh and market the beans soon
enough to get s. per bushel for them
surely he had no time for ''putter-
ing" as he saw fit to call the fruit
business. So he kept on raising beans
until there was nothing left of the
business but the pods. Our pioneer
continued to putter. The old gentle
man was ready TO sell. The pioneer
was ready TO buy. The beans went
out, the grapes went in.
Now notice, please, that we have in
our pioneer an innate and inherent
love for horticulture. And we have
a soil that has been studied with par
ticular reference to the business in
view.
But we must not conclude that ev-
cry fertile field will make a paying
vineyard. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. There are so many
other conditions that govern, some of
which are more important than fertil-
ity. And because some one of these
conditions is particularly unfavorable,
YOU are liable to see the balance, If
vou see it at all, on the wrong side Of
the ledger.
six years ago this coming spring, a
prominent grape grower showed me a
well-kept ledger on a Niagara vine
yard. Everything was charged to it
that should be-trimming, cleaning
out vines, tying, Irvine, cultivation,
baskets, picking, packing, marketing,
repairing and interest on the invest
ment-and a clean net balance was
shown of S216 per acre for the previous
year. We had just passed through a
"freeze" similar TO that of last win
ter. l said to him, "This severe win
ter has brought great loss to you on
that vineyard. He pointed TO the
ledger in reply. I have not seen the
ledger since, and the keeper of it has
gone TO his reward. But have seen
the vineyard great many times since
then and feel sure that the follow
ing five years business put together
would not show as good balance
The Concord vineyards adjoining suf
fered but little, and some Niagara