72 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GRAPES IN SOUTH MISSOURI. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen — When oar worthy Secre- 

 tary requested a paper from me, I declined stating that I was to busy- 

 He replied that he could not take no for an answer, and enclosed a 

 programme with my subject allotted me, ''Grapes in South Missouri." 

 I stand before you, not as an experienced horticulturalist or writer, 

 but only a plain every day business man, having been interested in hor- 

 ticulture a little less than four years, i came from Chicago to West 

 Plains the summer of 1893, buying an interest in the West Plains Fruit 

 Co., and assuming the management of same. There was at that time a 

 small vineyard of about 200 vines on the place 6 or 7 years old ; they 

 had at one time run upon two wires, but the posts had rotted off and 

 wires and vines one net work, with weeds higher than my head ; not 

 enough grapes matured that season to tell their variety. The follow- 

 ing winter I cleared away the old trellis and cut most of the vines to 

 the ground, leaving enough for the youngest wood, to try and find out 

 the following season the varieties we had. I then staked them, fer- 

 tilized the ground thoroughly, and plowed them well early in the spring. 

 I took special care of those grapes, and the summer of '94 satisfied me 

 that grapes in South Missouri was one of the fruits to grow. We gathered 

 from many of those vines we had pruned so severely in the winter, 30 

 pounds of fine luscious grapes. Concord, Goethe, Delaware, Clinton 

 and Niagara. 



The same spring I decided to put out quite a vineyard, so corres- 

 ponded with Mr. Meissner of the firm of Bush & Son and Meissner, 

 of Bushberg, Mo. He paid us a visit and located our vineyard. Not 

 knowing what I wanted I left it entirely with him as to varieties. We 

 have about 15,000 of what is classed as " Market or Table " grapes' 

 8,000 strictly wine grapes. I will speak of the varieties later. Will 

 now describe my grounds and how planted; my experience may help 

 others and prevent the mistakes I made. Our vineyards ( of 36 acres ) 

 are located on quite an elevation, sloping to the west, north and east, 

 the principal slope being to the east. Many of you no doubt know 

 the kind of soil we have about West Plains, providing you have taken 

 a pick or mattox and dug through the loose rock to find it. It is a 

 strong, deep red soil, heavily impregnated with oxide of iron, silicates 

 of potash and soda, carbonates of lime and potash and other chemi- 

 cals very conducive to root growth. The broken rock which covers 

 the surface of a great portion of our Ozark fruit region is a crystal- 



