202 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Lake Erie, tlie loss from black rot in 18S7 was only four or live per 

 cent. ; the same was true at Fredonia, Dunkirk and Brocton in New 

 York, and in all these places tba absence of dews or fogs during 

 this year was marked, fn Tennessee grape culture is really not re- 

 mimerative except above tbe limit of fogs. Thus, upon the plateaus 

 of the Cumberland there is a Swiss colony that cultivates the vine 

 successfully, and upon the lower hills of Ashland county, Ives seed- 

 ling gives moderatel}" good crops, although black rot is more fre- 

 quent; but npon the Cumberland river, where thick morning fogs 

 are frequent, and where the temperature is high, vine products 

 amount to almost nothing." 



In the discussion w^hich followed, Mr. Christy, of Hanover, said 

 that wherever the lake breeze strikes the inland without any inter- 

 ruption, we do not have serious frosts. 



Mr. Rathbun, living near Smith Mills, said he planted a Delaware 

 vineyard in 1863. Deh\ wares have never failed to produce a crop 

 and have never been injured by the frosts. 



Mr. Ryckman, of Brocton, said that Hanover is a larger town 

 than Portland, and there is much good land for grapes in it. I 

 should select the land back upon the foot hills, even if it should be, 

 as much of it is, very poor for ordinary farming. On the foot- 

 hills, the Salem does well. In planting, he preferred grass or sod 

 ground to stubble. You need not hesitate to set a vineyard because 



the land is not broken up. 

 ****** * 



From the address of Hon. R. P. Marvin (late Justice of the Su- 

 preme Court in the Eighth District) at the meeting of the society 

 in Brocton : 



"In 1850, before grape growing had started much, while holding 

 court in Cattaraugus county, I met young Mr. Deveraux, the son of 

 a prominent Utica man, who to my great surprise told me that we 

 had in northern Chautauqua a great grape country. He had 

 traveled through all the great grape regions of Europe. I asked 

 him wdiy he considered the lake region good for grapes. He said that 

 Lake Erie is a shoal lake and consequently in winter freezes over. 

 The ice in the spring keeps vegetation back and gives a later spring 

 than farther west around deeper lakes. Thus we avoid late spring 

 frosts. During the summer, owang to its shallowness, the lake 



