Read before Wisoosin State Horticultural Society.

I PLANTED one thousand vines of Concord on ground plowed twice, but new and full of live roots of oak trees that had been grubbed, so that 1 could not pul-verize it as I wished.

I erected trellises before planting, and placed the rows five feet apart, with four feet in the rows. Nearly all the plants had strong roots, and grew with a strong, healthy growth. Immediately after setting, I covered the whole ground nearly six inches deep with straw. Having covered my earlier settings with straw, instead of earth, to protect them from the inclemency of our unfriendly winters, and having met with such good success, with that material, I resolved to carry the experiment to its ultimate, and so far as I am capable of judging, with the best results; for the straw not only preserves the cane and the fruit buds from sleet and frosts, which, unprotected, are almost invariably destroyed in this climate, but it answers several other valuable purposes:

1st. The straw keeps the frost in the ground in the spring longer than it would be kept there if the ground be bare, thus keeping the buds retarded, so as to be completely out of the way of the late frosts.

2d. This check in the spring is more than made up by the stimulating heat of summer, aided by the retention of the sun's heat by the covering of straw during the night, and this artificial stimulus ripens my grapes a week or ten days earlier than their season without mulching.

3d. Straw covering has proved more efficacious, in saving the vines from injury, than* any other covering I am acquainted with. I have never lost a single vine, while seven-eights of all the vines in this county, covered with earth, a few years ago, were killed by an early sleet and accompanying freeze.

4th. The straw covering keeps the ground constantly moist, even during the obstinate drought of last season, and is supposed to greatly prevent rust, oidium or mildew, rot and blight, as I have had nothing of the kind on my vines for the whole period of my experiments, either in dry or wet seasons; except last year, which was exceedingly wet and backward, I noticed a few berries on the Catawba and Diana that exhibited the dry black rot.

5th. It was predicted by others, and in fact somewhat feared by myself, that the straw would be a burrowing place for mice and rabbits that would destroy my vines, and be a nest for the propagation of insects, yet I have never been troubled in the least with either. I noticed three seasons ago some few black aphis on the terminals of some of the vines, which I cut off and threw into the lake, since which I have seen nothing of these little black foes.

6th. The straw is an excellent gardener as well as winter protector, for if judiciously distributed it not only keeps the weeds from growing, but it keeps the ground "as mellow as an ash heap." It invites the bugs and worms (incapable of boring the grape roots) to the surface of the ground, it always being moist and soft; that surface is continually pulverized and vitalized by these industrious denizens of the soil. The straw not only accomplishes irrigation, but the finest cultivation, enabling the long fibrous roots and rootlets to secure their proper nourishment on the surface, in the richest and mellowest soil, without compelling them to penetrate hard sub-soil in search of nourishment, and to avoid the burning effect of the sun's rays. The straw mulching secures plenty of heat and abundance of moisture, which stimulate the ripening of the wood and fruit to a remarkable degree.

7th. Straw contains considerable ammonia, which has a great affinity for nitrogen, and collects that useful gas from the atmosphere and retains it for the diffusion of sugar and the nitrates essential to the value of the fruit, etc. And besides, the woody matter of straw returns to vegetable mould, thus adding vastly to the development and strength of the cane, etc. Phosphate and carbonate of lime are also de-posited and retained in a degree, adding greatly to rapid growth and early maturity.

I have now some 1,500 vines, and the weeding and cultivating have scarcely cost me a dollar a year. I have had some weeds to contend with, but it was wholly owing to a defective distribution of straw. I use from eight to ten loads each fall, covering the whole ground to the depth of six inches. In the spring as soon as the lilac leaves have half their growth, the vines should be uncovered and tied to the trellis, and leave nature and summer pruning to do the rest.

In 1869 - the first bearing year of the 1,000 Concords I had planted in 1868 - the vines were literally covered with fruit; very few vines had less than ten pounds, while some of them contained not less than thirty pounds. The branches were exceedingly well formed, with very large, plump berries. I could fill my bushel basket with pound bunches. I estimated that on the whole piece (about three-quarters of an acre) there could not be less than 10,000 pounds.

The crop, for the first one, being so intensely heavy, I did not expect to raise many the present year; but, though I was absent the whole summer, and did not trim them at all, but permitted them to "run at large," I could not perceive much difference from the bountiful yield of the previous season. I think the amount was somewhat less, but they were of better quality and flavor, and ripened a month earlier than last season.

I had never known straw to be used before, as a cover, a mulch or. a cultivator, but for ten years I have used it with most excellent success. I believe it saves one-half the otherwise necessary labor in this climate, producing earlier and better fruit. Hens should not be permitted to range in the vintage, for they will not only destroy much fruit, by promiscuously picking open the berries, but will so scratch and scatter the straw as to render it uselesss for the purpose intended.