42 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



■\vanderin2fs thousands and tens of thousands of the homes of our Illinois 

 people who had not one vine of this easiest-grown and most healthful 

 fruit growing on their premises. To these benighted creatures, we 

 should 2."ive our most earnest attention and entreaties. It is our first 

 duty to show them their sinful way ; to prove to them that a man is not 

 in this day and age of the world entitled to his own self-respect, still less 

 to that of his neighbors, if he has not a plentiful supply of grapes of his 

 own growing, in their season. At the prices that good vines of good 

 varieties are now being ofl^ered, there is no excuse but that all, even the 

 poorest land-holder, should have plenty. Why, the price of a glass of 

 lager beer will buy two, and that of a cigar four good Concord viiies! 

 The vines for an acre can be bought for $15! and this season has proven 

 to us that, with proper management, any land, from the mucky swamp 

 to the gravel bank, can be made to produce an abundance of good 

 grapes at one-tenth the outlay that we were formerly taught was 

 requisite. 



VARIETIES. 



The man who attempts to classify and describe all the native grapes 

 before the public ten years fi^om to-day will have undertaken a task of 

 vast magnitude. From present appearances, certainly, if we keep on in 

 this line of producing new varieties, as we are now doing, and if he 

 commenced with the Catawba, at the end of ten years, he would still be 

 ten years behind. But let the good work go on. We now have plenty 

 of varieties, but not enough that are exactly the right thing; and with 

 all the seedlings now being produced, it may be years before we have 

 another as near perfect as the Concord. The old Vitis vinifera of 

 Europe, has been skillfully manipulated by man for thousands of years : 

 yet scarcely a season passes but what new varieties are brought out with 

 marked improvements over the older kinds. I have been lately some- 

 what astonished to learn that some of our most renowned and experienced 

 horticulturists are beginning to have faith that the Vitis vinife7'a of 

 Europe and Asia, will 3'et produce varieties that will withstand our 

 climate, diseases, and insects. They have no doubt whatever but that 

 hybrids between it and our native species will be and are already pro- 

 duced that will fill our wants. 



In speaking of varieties this season, it is, I think, only fair to leave 

 out of consideration the damage done to vines by the October freeze of 

 last year — an accident that may not happen again in an age. I shall not 

 give so great prominence to the diseases, such as mildew, rot, etc., nor 

 to the insects infesting the vine, as has been done heretofore, to the dis- 

 paragement of certain varieties, otherwise first-rate. I shall look upon 

 these troubles as being easily overcome by the use of well-known, simple 

 remedies, being well convinced that we have got to overcome these 

 troubles, not by raising and puffing new^ varieties, but rather by constant 

 care and warfare, and the persistent use of remedial agents. We find 

 no living thing on earth free from diseases and parasites; why should we 

 look for an exception in the grape.'' Of course I do not pretend to say 



