ANNUAL WINTER MEETING AT WARKENSBURG. 203 



Newer ones have yet to show their test, one or two years will not 

 answer. 



Experimenting is expensive combined with years of labor, and so 

 far, out of so many new ones, we have as yet iew of real value. The 

 same may be said of other fruits, especially of apples, the test of many 

 of the so highly praised ones have not proven to be what was expected 

 and now we fall back on some of the older kinds that were set aside for 

 the newer ones. It is strange that many of our newer fruits will retain 

 their merits for a short time only, and some of our older kinds main- 

 tain their merits so long. 



REPORT BY CHAS. TEUBNEK, LEXINGTON, MO., MEMBER OF COMMITTEE ON 



VINEYARDS. 



In this vicinity grapes are not grown to any extent. There are 

 but five or six vineyards of a few hundred vines each. Some of our 

 farmers have a small trellis of vines, but these are left to grow at will, 

 or pruned in an insufficient manner. The Concord is the variety mostly 

 grown. Our climate and soil, however, is not unfavorable to grapes ; 

 in fact the soil on our river blull's is, I believe, well adapted to their 

 growth. The rot is usually less destructive than at Hermann or Co- 

 lumbia, Missouri. The past season, however, grapes rotted consider- 

 bly, in some places three-fouths in others half were lost, the whole 

 crop being about one-fourth. A neighbor of mine who has a small 

 vineyard (mostly of Concord) which receives rather more attention 

 and cultivation than that of others, lost over three-fourths of his crop 

 by rot. His few Norton's Virginia suffered like the Concord, except 

 one vine, which is trained on the east side of his house, and which 

 ripened a fine crop. His vineyard is on rather poor, sandy clay soil, 

 on the lower end of a western slope, the free passage of air draughts 

 being obstructed on the south by an orchard, and on the west by a hill. 

 The vines have been in bearing a number of years. Another neigh- 

 bor whose vines, partly cultivated, were on a rich loamy soil on a 

 hill with an eastern exposure, but surrounded on three sides by build- 

 ings and an orchards, also lost most of his crop by the rot. A 

 number of trellises on different farms, generally on rich prairie soil, 

 but uncultivated and left to grow at will, suffered less with rot, but the 

 remaining bunches, often many in number, had but a few straggling 

 berries, and these, on account of the excessively wet season, and lack 



