Winter Meeting. 303 



Prof. Whitten. — I think the young trees with a thin shell of sound 

 Avood on the outside will come out all right if they don't break off before 

 they get strong enough to withstand the storms. I am trying the plan 

 of cutting some of them back. I don't know whether they will do well 

 or not. If the trees have made a good growth this year I won Id treat 

 them just as if nothing had happened. 



THE GKAPE. 



By Samuel Miller, Bluffton, Mo. 



As this subject has been assigned me, I will commence with its 

 history as far back as we can trace it. 



It was cultivated before the deluge. Whether Xoah took rooted 

 vines or cuttings with him, when he entered the ark, does not matter; 

 but the first thing he planted when he came out of it was a vineyard. 

 This certainly gives the grape a prominent character among the pro- 

 ductions of the earth. That it is one of the best and most wholesome 

 fruits is also admitted. When ISToah's vines bore fruit he made wine 

 and got drunk; this is what countless thousands have done since then 

 and will most likely continue to do so to the end of time. 



From that first vineyard of sacred history to this time the grape has 

 held a prominent place among the good fruits of the world. Its range 

 of latitude is almost as great as that of any other fruit except the straw- 

 berry. It grows in swamps and on high mountains, in a great variety 

 of soils, yielding many varieties, from the little insignificant summer 

 grapes of our Missouri islands and bottoms to the magnificant Muscats, 

 Hamburgs, Moroccos and Syrian. The latter has grown bunches that 

 weighed 28 pounds. A traveler once stated that he came across grapes 

 in Afghanistan with bunches half a yard in length and with berries as 

 large as small walnuts. 



In the early part of this century the grape received in this country 

 but little attention and the attempt to grow Viniferas were fail- 

 ures. The fox grape (Labrusca) in the east and the fort grape were 

 about the only ones that survived, and even these, to my 

 personal knowledge failed some years from rot and mildew. Some 

 years the fii-st named all rotted, and the latter I have seen when the 



