STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 97 



for general planting, and are only grown for the sake of variety. 

 There are one or two seedlings of Elvira being tested, that are 

 both good wine and table grapes, and almost rot proof. The 

 Etta, especially, shows many good qualities. With nearly every 

 new variety, colored plates mis-representing the grape are sent 

 out, some of them looking like a bunch of bananas. But itis 

 seldom that I have been able to grow a bunch equal to the pic- 

 tures, and instead of requiring two men and a pole, one small 

 boy has gotten away with the largest of them without any diffi- 

 culty. 



If I were appointed a committee of one to tie the "blue 

 ribbon" on the "champion liar," I would pass by all the old 

 soldiers, fishermen and hunters, and tie it on some of the intro- 

 ducers of new fruits, and for once, I think, there would be no 

 " kicking" over the award. 



The past season has been one of the most disastrous to the 

 grower, and one of the most favorable to the development of 

 grape rot within my experience. The rot has been so universal 

 that even the newspapers were full of it, and grapes, except 

 where protected by paper sacks, or treated with rot preven- 

 tatives, were an entire failure. We used, at the Golden Bluff 

 Vineyards, this summer, as a rot preventative, the Bordeaux 

 Mixture, six pounds Sulphate of Copper and four pounds Lime 

 to twenty-two gallons water, using the " Eureka Sprayer." I 

 went over my vineyard seven times, doing the work myself, so 

 that I know it was thoroughly done. 1 went over them the first 

 time, about a week before the buds opened, and afterward once 

 every ten to twenty days, until the grapes began to color. Three 

 of four times within twenty-four hours after I finished, we were 

 visited by drenching rains that washed off most of the mixture, 

 but I fought it with good success, until the middle of July, when 

 the grapes were about full grown, and the bunches so compact 

 that only the outside of the bunch could be reached with the 

 Spray, while the rot Spores would get inside. 



Saturday, July 13th, was a cloudy day, extremely hot and sul- 

 try, succeeded by a week of hot, muggy weather, with frequent 

 showers. Previous to this we had had two attacks of rot that I 

 checked at once by spraying. I noticed the first indications of 

 the third attack on the following Monday, and by the 20th of the 

 month the loss at the Golden Bluff Vineyard was from fifty to 

 sixty thousand pounds of grapes, the Concord showing less 

 resistance to it than any of some thirty varieties. 



In my own vineyard, I succeeded in saving about 8,000 pounds 

 of Concords, 3,500 pounds Norton's Virginia, 1,000 pounds 

 Herman, and some 9,000 pounds of fruit on many other 

 varieties. In an ordinary season, I believe a crop of grapes can 

 be saved by spraying, and in this unfavorable season, it proved 

 a sure preventative of mildew. 

 —8 



