96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



door, and were occupied by all the old members of your Society, 

 who seemed to have considerable outside business to attend to. 

 While I have fully recovered, I can never forgive you for what I 

 suffered on that occasion. Like an alarm clock, he had been set 

 to "go off" at a certain hour. He made a big racket, and when 

 he was done all that we knew more than when he started, was, 

 that it was time to go home. The lady members sat gasping and hold- 

 ing their smelling bottles, the gentlemen holding theirs with "nary 

 smell" left, and I, with the perspiration streaming from my face, 

 and wishing I had brought nry gun. I do not see this "silvery 

 tongued orator" here to day. And "you don't have to tell" what 

 you did with him. But noticing his absence, I fully realize that 

 when a person inflicts a long winded article upon you, that life 

 with him is very uncertain, and he should be prepared for the 

 worst. Wherefore I think it safer, thus early in the entertainment 

 to "thank you for your liberal patronage and kind attention." 



I first became interested in grape growing "way back in the for- 

 ties." Among my large library of Sunday School books, was one 

 containing a picture of two figures of extraordinary muscular de- 

 velopment, tottering along the road, carrying a pole, on which was 

 hung a single bunch of grapes. Although there were no affidavits 

 from prominent horticulturists that it was an actual photograph, 

 and that it was the only bunch on the vine that two men could carry, 

 I believed it, and was seized with a desire to grow something like 

 it. Before we shed our fine feathers, we are apt to swallow every- 

 thing offered us. But from subsequent experience, I am certain 

 that it was taken from the illustrated catalogue of some enterpris- 

 ing nurseryman of that period, who had a new seedling he was sell- 

 ing his neighbors. How many times since have I taken the same 

 old bait. The dollars I have spent in buying new and untested 

 varieties; how I wish I had them back again, so that I could in- 

 vest in some of those just introduced. 



For the past eight or ten years, grape growing has been a very 

 precarious means of making a living, and never again will we 

 experience a " grape boom" like that of '65 and '66, when law- 

 yers, doctors and merchants planted vineyards, expecting as soon 

 as they came into bearing to retire from business, and pass the 

 remainder of their days spending their income in " having fun." 

 Then every grape grower was a millionaire — " in his own mind." 



About this time the Concord was introduced. The praises of 

 the Iona and Isabella were being sung from one end of the land 

 to the other, and parties pushing these varieties, claimed that 

 the Concord was " unfit to eat" and would not make wine when 

 ripe. These are no longer heard of, while the Concord has been 

 the most popular of all. It has been such a favorite, that, no 

 doubt, five times the amount of money has been sunk in plant- 

 ing Concords, than in any other variety. But few of the many 

 seedlings placed upon the market every year prove of any value 



