78 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



house, but on the more elevated vineyard the damage was very great 

 throughout, even to its highest point, although the greatest damage 

 was done in the lower portions, where Elvira, Concord, and others 

 had all their fruit killed. I have some Taylor that have been kept 

 in grass as an experiment; these suffered most, as all their forms and 

 most of the young foilage was frosted. In the other portions of the 

 vineyard the damage amounted to about one-fifth of the promised 

 crop of the more hardy varieties, whilst such of the tender varieties 

 as had winter protection had about half of their forms killed. 



" May was quite dry, but on the 4th of June rainy weather set 

 in, which continued Avith but short interruption to the latter part of 

 August. Mildew soon made its appearance on the leaves of those 

 varieties most liable to it. Catawba, Iowa. Meade, Marytawny and 

 Creveling suffered most, and did not ripen their fruit, and made but 

 a poor growth of wood. I can hardly make up my mind to again 

 give winter protection to the hybrids and such tender varieties as 

 Herbemont, Cunningham and Rulander, when, in spite of the labor 

 bestowed, they will bring so little return as they did the two past 

 seasons. 



'' The Elvira and Noah suffered less from mildrew; Concord and 

 Lady showed the effect of mildew somewhat, but not to such an ex- 

 tent as to prevent their ripening their fruit well. 



'^ Norton, Cynthiana, Cottage, Ives and Mason were free from 

 mildew. In June, the usual concomitant of wet weather and mil- 

 dew, the grape rot made its appearance and destroyed about one-half 

 of the Concord, one-third of the Cottage, and one-fourth of the 

 Taylor and Herbermont, most of the Massasoit, and a few of the 

 Noah. Cynthiana, Norton, Elvira. Mason and Ives suffered least. 

 About one-tenth of m}^ Elvira did not ripen, owing to loss of foilage 

 by mildew, and partly on account of overbearing. The other nine- 

 tenths had a heavy crop of fine healthy fruit. 



"The Mason, with its large berries and medium sized bunches, 

 proved quite healthy in foilage and fruit. They ripened within a 

 week of the Lady, August 18th, and again proved of good quality. 

 They are quite sweet when still of a green color. The vine given 

 me by Mr. Mason has now fruited with me for three years, but never 

 set more fruit than my Lady. Next year I will have a dozen Mason 

 vines in full bearing and will be better able to sjjeak knowingly of 

 them. 



" Although the Noah lost some berries by rot, it ripened a large 

 crop of very handsome bunches, and made abundance of wood for a 

 future crop. The only fault I find with it is that its ripe berries 

 drop too readily from the stems." 



Mr. J. Balsizer, of Highland, 111., made the following report: 



" With me the grape crop was a failure this season, owing to 

 the frost we had on May 2d, which killed the young shoots as far 



