40 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



The question ma}' be asked, " Why is the rot so much more de- 

 structive now than f ormerl\' ? '' 



Vineyards are usually planted on land that has been cleared one 

 or more years, and, there being no grapes, there can be and is no roi 

 there, and no spores from which to develop it, and for a few years 

 all goes well and fine crops are harvested; but the rot is on the wild 

 grapes in the woods, and in course of time a spore carried by the 

 wind becomes attached to a grape in the young vineyard and it rots 

 unnoticed and unseen. The following season the spores from this 

 one grape spring up, float in the atmosphere, and being surrounded 

 with a fine crop, alight on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of grape 

 berries and run their course of destruction; but yet the damage is 

 so small, compared to the crop, that in all probability it is not 

 noticed; but the following year the damage increases in the same 

 proportion, perhaps quite ruining the crops, and being well estab- 

 lished will continue to destroy the crop year after year, except that 

 sometimes a part of the crop may escape destruction by the season 

 being unfavorable for the development of the fungus. It is a fact 

 that new vineyards, planted on new ground far away from any other 

 vineyards, bear several good crops free from rot, but young vines 

 planted near infected vineyards will be attacked as soon as they come 

 into bearing. 



Reasoning from the foregoing facts, I think the rot can be 

 eradicated by cutting all the vines down to the ground and allowing 

 no grapes to grow for one year; there being no grapes for the rot to 

 l)ropagate in, there will be no spores to destroy the crop the follow- 

 ing year, and a few crops can be grown as free from rot as when the 

 vineyard was first planted. This is my theory, reasoning from what 

 we know of the nature of the rot, and some experiments made the 

 past year strongly confirm the correctness of these views. In the 

 spring of 1885, Mr. John Riggs, of Godfrey, grubbed up his vine- 

 yard of Concords, as they had rotted for years, and he thought them 

 worthless, but the work was not thoroughly done and many vines 

 made new canes. About this time I first advanced the above theory 

 in the Alton Southern Society, and Mr. Riggs, thinking to test it, 

 tied up the vines, and this season he had a crop free from rot. Of 

 course, one experiment is not conclusive; but as the theory looks 

 reasonable, and experiments so far made resulting favorably, I would 

 recommend to others having rot-infested vineyards to try the experi- 

 ment. 



Wine making with us has been almost entirely abandoned as 

 not profitable. What grapes are grown are sent to northern mar- 

 kets, hence the early varieties onW are profitable, and large size in 

 bunch and berry is greatly desired. Anything later than Concord 

 is not desirable, except for local market in small quantities. With 

 us the Concord rots very badly, and as the price for it is low, it 

 hardly pays to bag it. My own, I intend to graft to other varieties. 



