STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 49 



staminate plants in our vineyards as well as in our hop-yards? Would 

 nature have produced so many staminate plants in this genus if they arc 

 HOt needful? Are seedlings grown from seed of imperfectly fertilized 

 flowers to be expected to have the same vitality as those from abundantly 

 fertilized ones? Qiiestions that can only be completely demonstrated by 

 practical experiments. 



One very important point in the culture of the grape trained on trees 

 I omitted to state in its proper place, which is : I have noticed that they 

 are invariably freer from the depredations of leaf-destroying insects, and 

 so far as observed, free from mildew. 



I have not had time to make a report on other small fruits, and would 

 suggest in lieu thereof, if the Society so wills it, that we devote a portion 

 of our time to a full discussion of them. 



D. B. WIER. 



DISCUSSION OF TOPICS IN MR. WIEr's REPORT. 



Dr. Hull appealed to Dr. Warder on the point of the fertilization 

 of the flowers of grapes ; whether it were possible for the pollen to be so 

 entirely carried away by the wind as to prevent impregnation and cause 

 barrenness. 



Dr. Warder replied that he had known Isabella vines growing upon 

 the top of trellises, or on trees, lose their pollen by the wind to such an 

 extent as to diminish their productiveness. Still there was but little 

 danger in this direction. He spoke highly of the Martha. With him, 

 and elsewhere in Ohio, it was one of the most profitable, productive, and 

 hardy ; was the only grape from which he realized profits tliis year. 



Mr. WiER said that he had made many points, in his paper, radical 

 on purpose to invite discussion. He stated that he had observed that the 

 wind had sometimes forced the caps, or coverings, ofl' the stamens before 

 tlie pollen was sufficiently developed, or matured, to fertilize the pistils, 

 and therefore no fruit was formed. 



Dr. Warder thought that training the vines on high trellises, or 

 allowing them to ramble among the tree-tops, will not give immunity 

 against the mildew. He thought no permanent success could follow the 

 cultivation of foreign grapes, such as Mr. Wier anticipates; but ditl 

 entertain high hopes of the production of improved varieties by hybrid- 

 izing these and our native American varieties. 



Mr. Wier found, by correspondence with eminent vineyardists, that 

 the project of cultivating many foreign sorts was not abandoned. 



Dr. Warder stated that some of the foreign grapes — (rolden Chas- 

 selas for instance — often succeed pretty well at first, bearing two or three 

 crops, after which they gradually disappear from the gardens. Mr. G. 

 W. Campbell, of Ohio, has some hybrids between native and foreign 

 grapes which prove valuable. Mr. Campbell has also discovered a 

 natural dependency or relation between the tendril and the fruit, so that 

 he can tell, from the tendril of a seedling which has not yet borne, what 



