STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 39 



TUESDAY EVENING. 



REPOKT OF COMMITTEE OX GRAPE CrLTrPtK. 

 BY E. A. RIEHL, ALTON. 



What I have to say about grape culture will be from the stand- 

 point of the section where I live. • Further north, where different 

 conditions exist, different rules, varieties and methods must be 

 adoj)ted to insure success. 



In our section rot is the supreme factor in grape-growing, and 

 the whole ((uestion of success or failure depends on the rot almost 

 entirel}'. Were there no rot to contend against, gra]ie-growing would 

 be but child's play compared to what it is now, and we could grow 

 all varieties almost anywhere in the greatest abundance and perfec- 

 tion. You of the north have no idea what a dreadful thing the rot 

 is to the grape-grower of our section. To intelligentlv discuss grape 

 culture in our section we must first consider the nature of, and rem- 

 edies for, rot. so far as known. 



Rust is a minute ])arasitic fungus (PJionia UricoJa )■ The spores 

 or seeds, produced on grapes that rotted the year before, float in the 

 atmosphere, and alighting on a grape in damp, wai*m weather, ger- 

 minate, enter and destroy the tissues of the grape. Should the tem- 

 perature fall below (iO deg., Fahrenheit, after the spores have germin- 

 ated, the fungus will perish of cold, as a temperature above 00 deg. 

 is necessary to 'its growth and well being. Wherever the thermom- 

 eter falls below 00 deg. as often as once a week, if but for an hour 

 at a time, rot can make no headway, hence our friends of the north 

 are not trouljled with it. Moisture is also necessary to its growth; 

 spores alighting on a grape cannot grow unless moisture be present, 

 but a heavy dew is sufficient. Gra))es trained on the walls of build- 

 ings, where they are protected by the projecting eaves, are exempt 

 from rot and bear full crops year after year. A roof of boards in 

 the vineyard has the same effect, but is too expensive. No method 

 has yet been discovered to destroy or prevent the rot in a %vholesale 

 way in the vineyard. All applications, modes of pruning or cultiva- 

 tion, are without effect. The only practical means yet devised is in- 

 closing the small clusters, as soon as formed, in sacks of paper be- 

 fore the rot makes its ajipearance. If delayed until the rot uuike its 

 appearance, it is worse than labor lost to apply the sacks, for sack- 

 ing seems to increase the evil after the rot has started. The sacks 

 can be purchased and applied at a cost of about a half cent per 

 pound, and sacking so im]troves the appearance that it would ])ay 

 were there no rot. Some few varieties have so far been exempt from 

 rot, as Norton's Virginia, Cynthiana, Perkins, Marsala and Jewell. 



