166 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



PLUMS. 



We saw but little of plums. At Princeton, at Chas. Baldwin's, were trees of Washing- 

 ton, and perhaps Duane's Purple, full of fruit ; but as to the fruit, the curculio marked it 

 for its own. At Arthur Bryant's, we saw a Chickasaw plum, grown from the seed, which 

 has never yet produced fruit. 



Some attention has been called to Miner's Seedling, and the Wild Goose plum, which 

 seem to be varieties of the Chickasaw, from which it is not unlikely that some very 

 valuable varieties may ultimately be produced. In my own neighborhood, D. C. Scheer 

 is succeeding very well with plums of the German prune type that he has imported 

 cions of, from Germany. 



GRAPES. 



The year being very favorable for the grape, and many new vineyards coming into 

 bearing, we had an opportunity to observe an unusually large number of varieties. 



At Aurora, Mr. Reese showed us Creveling, which he has found very satisfactory. 

 Rogers' 15, three years fruited, which has proved the best of the Rogers' hybrids with 

 him ; Delaware, very good ; Rogers' No. 4, good. Of foreign varieties he has Black 

 Hamburg, principally grown on spurs, and also Golden Chasselas, Golden Hamburg, 

 Wilmot's Hamburg, White Frontignac, Grizzly Frontignac, Syrian Muscat Hamburg, 

 Bowood Muscat, etc. These are grown in a grape house 136 feet long by 14 wide, and 

 seemed well managed. Six pound bunches were grown from the Syrian last year. The 

 grapes out doors had b een somewhat injured by frost. Abram Odell, on the warm river 

 bank, has been growing grapes for 18 years, and is the pioneer in the business at Aurora. 

 He is cultivating 13 or 14 varieties. He finds the Isabella, the most productive ; Dela- 

 ware, Concord and Hartford Prolific succeed well, and even the Catawba ripens. The 

 fruit is grown on long canes, and both fruit and vines looked well. 



At Princeton, Arthur Bryant showed us a very good vineyard of Concord, Delaware, 

 etc., which was bearing the best crop of any vines I saw in Northern Illinois. 



At Lacon, we were shown some Clinton wine made by John E. Benton of that place, 

 in 1867, the must of which weighed 103°. This equaled iu richness any Clinton must of 

 that year of which I have a record. The wine was pronounced excellent by most of 

 the committee. 



At Quincy, during the State fair, I had an opportunity of examining some of the 

 Concord and Delaware grapes grown at that point this year. They were very excel- 

 lent and well grown. The grapes exhibited from that point for premiums, however, 

 were generally poorly grown, the bunches being defective and the berries small. As 

 the Quincy soil is unimpeachable, this could only have been the result of poor culti- 

 vation. 



Some Kansas grapes, from near Fort Scott, exhibited at the same fair, were very well 

 grown and ripened ; they comprised Isabella (?), Catawba, and Diana. 



At Alton, my vineyard visiting was limited to a trip to Jas. E. Starr's vineyard at 

 Mount Eminence. Mr. Starr has 8000 vines in bearing this year, and 30 acres under 

 lease, enough to make ultimately about 50 acres in vineyard. The ground leased is let 

 for 15 years, Mr. Starr finding fencing and tenement, plants and stakes, and breaking up 

 the ground. The tenant plants, cultivates, and pays as rent, one-half of the grapes 

 at the vineyard. As to choice of varieties, Mr. Starr says he would plant four-fifths 



