98 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



In 1888, while we had no Concords that escaped the rot, good 

 crops were grown in other localities, under equally as unfavor- 

 able conditions, by the use of the rot preventatives, and I am 

 confident that the experiments being made under the directions 

 of the Department of Agriculture, will give us something better. 



My expense, including labor, for treating about seven acres, 

 was sixty-five dollars. The crops in the other vineyards near us 

 were an entire failure, so that we'feel somewhat encouraged, 

 although the results have not come up to our expectations. But 

 for that matter, they never do. The grape grower, like "Pip," 

 always has "great expectations." He has but little else to 

 "brace him up." Without that, life would indeed be to him a 

 "dreary waste." If he has anything else at harvest time, it is 

 something he has caught from the neighbors. He "rises with 

 the lark," "works, as well as sprays," during the day, and at 

 night "sleeps the sleep of the innocent" that he is. But he is a 

 "stayer." x ou'll find every one of them just where they started, 

 but with more experience and less hair. While I have lost much 

 of my affection for my first love, it still clings to me and squeezes 

 me tighter each succeeding year and it is a question whether I 

 have the vineyard or it has me. I realize, when too late, that the 

 greatest mistake of my life was, that when I was "discharged" 

 from the army I didn't "go off" in some other direction. 



But are not the fruit growers, as a class, "grievously 

 affected?" I often wonder why it is that we have almost every 

 thing on our trees and vines except fruit. The horticulturist 

 not only has worms, but a great many other things to make him 

 unhappy, such as sun scabs, borers, curculio, rot, rust, blight, 

 the bark louse, the gall louse, fleas, and an endless list of 

 noxious insects and diseases. And last, but by no means least, 

 the traveling "tree agent." He, like the poor, we have always 

 with us. His mission on earth seems to be to lead the "coy and 

 unsuspecting granger" astray. He not only "sticketh closer than 

 a brother," but if you patronize him, sticketh harder. Remove 

 t]ae tape worm "from our midst," and there is nothing so hard 

 to get rid of as the agent. 



I add a few notes made during the ripening season. The first 

 to ripen with me is always the Hartford. While many are said 

 to ripen earlier, none do. It is closely followed by Moore's 

 Early, which, though of better quality, is not productive 

 enough. Nearly all the other varieties ripen about the same 

 time as Concord, or within a few days of it. Vergennes, one of 

 the new grapes, is of very good quality, red, with a tough skin 

 like a plum. It no doubt will be a valuable keeper. Oriental, 

 a seedling of Catawba, with same color and flavor, larger berry. 

 Peter Wylie, medium-sized bunch, sometimes double-shouldered, 

 being same size and flavor, identical with the Deleware; color, 

 white. Eldorado, of the finest flavor, white; bunch, large; 



