324 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



great care to prepare the ground, by enriching it with compost from my 

 barn-yard, and plowed the ground eighteen or twenty inches deep ; but 

 did not plant my vines until the next spring, when I stirred the ground 

 again, making ridges where I set the vines. Then I staked all my ground 

 off, six by ten feet. I got all the information that I could as to depth of 

 planting, by reading and inquiry, which was but little. I went to work 

 and set my vines from six to eight inches in depth. They all started 

 and grew very thrifty that summer. Then in October, after frost had 

 killed the leaves, I cut them within six to twelve inches of the ground, and 

 covered them with two or three inches of dirt for winter protection. In 

 the spring, I lifted them very carefully ; then took my plow and plowed 

 the dirt up to the vines, burying them nearly under. When growing season 

 came on they started and grew about ten inches, then stopped, 

 except one row about sixteen feet north of my garden fence — running east 

 and west, where the snow had lain all winter. These grew right along. 

 Then comes up the cry, "What is wrong with nearly all our vines ?" On 

 examining the roots, I found all of the last year's roots frozen dead, and 

 young roots just beginning to start on the vines where they had been 

 plowed under. About the middle of July or first of August they started 

 again, and grew about like cuttings that had been set in the spring. The 

 following winter they shared nearly the same fate ; the next summer they 

 grew but very little ; then in the fall I dug up about four hundred and 

 put them in my cellar. In the spring following I plowed trenches fifteen 

 to eighteen inches deep, set the vines in them and plowed the dirt up to 

 the vines again. Since then I have not given the Concord any winter 

 protection, although I lost about twenty last winter; but I think they 

 bore too much in 1872, as they bore very heavy, some yielding as much 

 as fifty pounds to the vine. Those that I did not dig up, I covered well ; 

 some with old straw and some with dry wheat chaff, which is about the 

 best protection that I ever used, except dry leaves, which, I think, is better. 

 I left the mulch on the ground and plowed right through it with my 

 plow, but did not plow it under. 



I find the shovel plow about the best implement to cultivate my 

 vines with, using the hoe under the trellis. In 1872, my Delawares set 

 so much fruit that the trellis was completely covered with it, and they 

 appeared to be doing very well until the fruit commenced to color, when 

 wet weather set in, and it rained very heavy every few days for nearl}- 

 three weeks. In that time the leaves nearly all dropped off, and the 

 fruit did not ripen any more, but finally dropped. One day some gentle- 

 men and ladies visited my vineyard, and in walking through it on coming 

 to the Delaware, one of the gentlemen proposed examining the roots; 

 and on examination we found an insect in the fibrous roots something 

 similar to those found in the Clinton leaves, and every fibre was dead. 

 Before examining the roots, I thought it was the wet weather that caused 

 the leaves to drop, but that entirely changed my idea about it. I lost 

 over two hundred Delaware vines, with all their great loads of fruit. I 

 set some new varieties in the spring of 1872 ; some Croton, some Walter, 

 and five of Arnold's varieties ; they all froze dead except one of Arnold's 



