234 Mississippi Valley Horiicultural Society. 



will probably be successfully grown where the Concord does well and is free 

 from rot. The Prentiss, a splendid seedling of Isabella, seems to me of 

 doubtful success, where this old variety generally fails, as it does in the Mis- 

 sippi Valley. Here the Bacchus, a Clinton seedling, and the Taylor seedlings^ 

 Elvira, Noah, etc., may have a better prospect of success. 



I frankly confess my serious doubts, my fears, that rot and mildew, so 

 prevalent and increasing of late in many parts of this rich Mississippi Val- 

 ley, will prevent the success of most of the large, fine table grapes, which 

 nearly all belong to the Labrusca class in this, our territory. As long as 

 those pests do not either disappear or can not be checked by some means ; as 

 long as no remedj'^ or preventive against them is discovered, I have but 

 faint hopes for the success of these new table or market varieties in the West, 

 except in some peculiar spots mysteriously exempt from these fungoid dis- 

 eases. 



But the grape was never grown for its use as a table fruit only ; nor could 

 its culture be profitable on a large scale for that use alone. The markets 

 would soon be overstocked and its value reduced below the cost of produc- 

 tion. The main purpose for which grapes are grown is for wine, the fer- 

 mented juice of the grape, that universal oldest remedy against human afliic- 

 tions, that elixir which enhances our pleasures, dispels our sorrows, invigor- 

 ates and rejuvenates man as no other stimulant can. Noah and Bacchus 

 already made wine of the grape, and its use as a beverage is almost as old as 

 the grape itself. In ancient Greece the time of grape-gathering and that of 

 drinking the new wine was the occasion of great festivities, consisting of 

 public dinners, theatrical representations, music, sacrifices for the prosperity 

 of the state and for the souls of the dead. True, a licentious Roman people con- 

 verted those festivities into nocturnal orgies and called them "Bacchanalia," 

 but the wisest men of that time said : " Let us not ascribe these orgies to the 

 God of Wine; let the excesses be punished and suppressed ; but prize and use 

 properly the divine gift and it will embellish our life with flowers and fruits, 

 as whose protector Bacchus is revered; it will foster poetry, fine arts and all 

 social pleasures." 



Thus, from time immemorial to this day, the art of making wine and its 

 uses have existed and spread and grown all over the world, and nowhere has 

 it been entirely suppressed except in China, where, five hundred years be- 

 fore our era, an imperial mandate ordered the uprooting of all the grape- 

 vines in the vast empire, and where the refusal to do so was punished by 

 death. Has this made the Chinese better, more virtuous or civilized ? No, 

 indeed ! But the use of enervating opiates has taken the place of invigorat- 

 ing wine. And this will be the consequence wherever wine is prohibited. 

 In all civilized countries there is scarcely a festive board without wine. The 

 church uses it in its sacred service as the symbol of God's noblest gifts; the 

 physician prescribes it as a health-restoring tonic to the sick and conva- 

 lescing. 



The wine production has reached hundreds of millions of gallons, it forms 



