104 Report of State Board of Horticulture. 



so that the swaying of the young cane by the wind will not work the top 

 string down the stake, thereby pulling down the tender growth, which 

 hardens in time and leaves you a crooked, deformed stump that pruning 

 cannot remedy. Your only remedy in such cases is to cut back all the 

 growth the spring following and start a new cane to form a new stump. 

 There will be weak vines the second year which will not make strong 

 enough growth to stake. Let them alone, and the third year cut them back 

 to two or three buds and they will soon show a vigorous growth that will 

 do to tie to a stake. Vineyards grown on the stump, as nearly all European 

 varieties are grown, require staking for seven or eight years, until the 

 stump is strong enough to bear its burden of luscious grapes. By using 

 cedar stakes at the beginning you will avoid the necessity of restaking 

 many vines. 



Do not expect many grapes from your young vineyard until it is fiv(» 

 years old. Commercially speaking, your profit will pay you 6 per cent on 

 a valuation so large that I am too modest to tell you what the valuation is. 



There are many choice varieties among the European grapes. The Mus- 

 cat, Malaga and Flame Tokay are in my opinion the best three. Only the 

 best should be grown for home use or the markets. AH three are firm, late 

 grapes, good keej^ers, great bearers, and quality superb, and if properly 

 ripened, picked and packed will stand shipping across the continent and 

 will sell in the Eastern markets at top prices. 



There are many other table grapes, such as the Black Prince, Cornichon, 

 Black Hamburg, Black Ferrera, Gro^ Maroe and Purple Damascus, that 

 are fine. 



I often hear the remark: "I believe I would like grape-growing, as 

 grapes, like Topsy, just grow — you don't have to spray them." This is a 

 mistake. I say to you that if you become a commercial grape-grower you 

 will have to work. If you are to have success you will have to bestow the 

 labor and care that men in apple, pear and peach-growing bestow to assure 

 success. The grape has its fungi and its insect pests, and you will have to 

 intelligently meet and overcome these diseases and pests or you will fail. 



Of insect pests we have the grapevine aphis. This pest so far has not 

 proved serious. 



Then we have the green grapevine sphinx. The larvae of this insect 

 some years are very plentiful, and if permitted would do serious damage to 

 the growing vine. In this climate the female moth deposits from cue to 

 three eggs on the under side of the leaf about June 1. The egg is about 

 one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, whitish in color and oval in form. In 

 five or six days the egg hatches and the young larva soon begins on the 

 young, tender foliage. His growth is rapid, and in a short time he becomes 

 a python among leaf-eating worms. I have seen the grown larva that 

 measured two and three-quarters inches in length and as large around as 

 the little finger. Two or three of these grown worms will, if not discovered, 

 soon strip every leaf from an old vine. Its natural enemies, the birds, 

 destroy many of them, and owing to its large size you can readily detect 

 him and when found knock him off the vine and with the hoe end him. 

 The climbing cutworm is a serious pest on one and two-year-old vines 

 They are nocturnal in their habits, feeding at night, and were it not for 

 our robins and bluebirds, who detect and destroy them in countless numbers, 

 they would destroy any and all growing vegetation in our fields in early 

 spring and summer months. Thanks to Governor Chamberlain's wisdom, 

 when he interposed his veto to the Perkins bill, as to what extent the 

 law can protect the fruit-growers' friends yet remains law. 



The most dreaded insect pest is the grape phylloxera. It has not yet 

 ni'ade its appearance in any of the vineyards of Oregon, but is in portions 

 of the grape-growing district of California. When it does appear here, if it 

 does, our only remedy is to graft the finer Knropean grsipes on resistant 



