44 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Mr. Johnson — Before my door is one of the Largest and best 

 managed vineyards in the State — that of Mr. A. H. Worthen. — 

 The Norton is grown there and prized as a wine grape. Grape rot 

 is very peculiar; it gives no warning of its approach, and sometimes 

 leaves you just as unceremoniously. This year the rot held off in the 

 early part of the season, but, without warning, it came at length, 

 spreading rapidly for a few days, when it stojDped as unexpectedly 

 as it came. It is a matter about which we know but little. 



Mr. Riehl — If Mr. Johnson can fix the day the rot stopped, he 

 will find that the thermometer fell below sixty deg. Fahrenheit. This 

 kills the grape spores. It is produced by a certain degree of heat 

 and moisture. Grafting the grape is a very simple process. Just as 

 the buds start, cut off the stock a little below the ground, and cleft- 

 graft as in the apple, then draw the earth around it up to the last 

 bud, and mulch with sawdust. One bud to the scion will do, but 

 two is better, by this means I get ahead of the nurseymen who sell 

 us high-priced varieties. 



SPECIALTIES IN HORTICULTURE. 

 BY THEODORE GOODRICH. 



I assume that eighth-tenths of the gentlemen before me derive 

 their income directly from fruit-growing. Of the remaining two- 

 tenths, probably one-half indirectly from the same business. I as- 

 sume also, that we have engaged in this business not as a pastime; 

 not to spend a vacation in ''fair and leafy June," when the air is 

 laden with the perfume of the orchard, and the fields are thick Avith 

 waving grass; nor to "wander through the pathless woods," whose 

 leaves are gorgeous in the matchless tints of autumn, while the 

 ''hills are dotted with corn." That would be beautiful and esthetic. 

 But men do not engage in fruit-growing for pastoral effects, or the 

 gratification of a taste for the beautiful. 



Horticulture is a business, and like all other branches of busi- 

 ness is prosecuted for money. T would not for a moment be under- 

 stood to depreciate a taste for the beautiful, or its gratification. 

 Ours is a noble calling and full of great possibilities in this direc- 

 tion, and it is both right and proper that we improve and increase 

 them. But after all, the end we aim at is money. We plant pear 

 trees, not to weave the blossoms into garlands, but to sell the pears 

 f(»r a price, and a good round price. 



