MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 121 



IS THE CAUSE lis" OVER-CROPPING. 



Secretary E. Williams, of the New Jersey Horticultural Society, writes : 



1 have thought over-cropping", or summer pruning, one or both might have 

 something to do with it. 



A gentleman in an adjoining county having a vineyard of Concords, told me 

 this season he was discouraged, as they were then rotting badly the third sea- 

 son in succession. He had given them the best of care, trained and cared for 

 them on the ''Fuller system," took pride in it, and had found it profitable till 

 the rot came ; now he should give them up. I asked for his theory as to the 

 cause. He had none. I suggested over-cropping. He had thought of the 

 same thing, but was undecided, like myself. 



An amateur near me informed me last season that in his examinations of the 

 affected berries he had invariably found a maggot or worm in the seed, but I 

 have dissected a number of berries this season and failed to find anything of 

 the kind. 



Twenty to thirty years ago I grew the Isabella as fine as one could with lit- 

 tle or no care, and no trouble about rijiening. I can not do it now, or could 

 not a few years back with the best care I could give them, so I abandoned 

 them altogether. 



My oldest vines now are Concords, planted about twelve years. I can not 

 give the year in which the rot first made its appearance, but it was when I 

 practiced summer pruning, and kept the vines in tolerable condition and well 

 cultivated. But like the gentleman mentioned, I found it poor satisfaction to 

 take so much trouble to grow a crop of rotten grapes, and gave it up. Now 

 the vines get a pretty close pruning in February and absolutely no culture at 

 all. The result is a very fair and satisfactory crop of grapes annually, and 

 very little rot; some little every year in spots, — here and there a vine, — but 

 not enough to be alarming. 



A neighbor who does not prune very closely has more rot among his grapes 

 than I do, but I do not assert that it is caused by over-cropping, or that my 

 comparative exemption is due to my ''let alone system," for I don't know; 

 but these are the facts, and it will require a series of experiments in this direc- 

 tion to prove whether they have any bearing on the cause of the trouble. 



A SHEAF OF EXPERIENCE. 



[The following letter is given here for the double purpose, 1st, to show from 

 the magnitude of the business how important it is that it be preserved ; 2d, 

 to indicate the benefit which may be derived by thorough use of sulphur.] 

 Mr. Chas. D. K. Townsend, of Isle St. George, writes : 



I will be most happy to give you all tlie facts in my experience of fifteen 

 jears in the grape business. It may be of interest to know what we are doing 

 in this group of islands, comprising Put-in-Bay township. The principle grape 

 interest is represented on the three main islands, viz.: Koss, alias South 

 Bass Isle, the largest of the group has 550 acres of vineyard, — 393 acres of 

 Catawba, 54 acres of Delaware, 90 acres of Concord, the balance Norton's, 

 Clinton, Ives, etc. The vintage of 1878, on this island, was one million two 

 hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds of grapes. The Put-in-Bay Island 

 wine company built a cellar in 1871, with a storage capacity of 125,000 gal- 

 lons; in 1878 the company pressed 75,000 gallons of wine. There are several 

 private wine cellars on this island of from 10,000 to 20,000 gallons storage 

 -capacity. 



