22 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



EFFECTS OF FROST ON GRAPES. 



BY HON. C. D. LAWTON OF LAWTON. 



The month of Maj last was conspicuous, from the grape-growers' stand 

 point, for the severe frosts that occurred, and one of the most affecting 

 results which this calamity occasioned was the palpable change in the 

 mental and material conditions of a great number of individuals. The 

 sudden transition from hope, expectation, and confidence to the depths of 

 discouragement, failure, and great pecuniary loss is a change that taxes 

 the fortitude of those who suffer, while the despondency of the owners 

 and the blighted trellises are alike suggestive and distressful to the 

 observer. 



My remarks will be confined to what I have noted here about Lawton; 

 but I presume that the same conditions prevailed elsewhere throughout 

 the state, and, also, as a general fact, in Ohio and New York as well. In 

 fact, no doubt, the effects of the frost were the same, where they occurred, 

 in all grape-growing sections, and this discussion is applicable to all such 

 places alike. 



At Lawton, grape-growing has come to be the chief fruit industry; 

 peaches, berries, and other fruits are also raised, and, years ago, much 

 more largely, comparatively, than now. But peaches became uncertain 

 and berries were not always greatly profitable, while grapes proved 

 remunerative and were thought to be certain. A few persons had vine- 

 yards which had been bearing fruit for many years, and these had never 

 failed, from any cause, to yield their annual harvest. Thus, while the 

 raising of grapes for market caused a greater amount of care and labor on 

 the part of the producer, and afforded him less profit than did peaches, 

 when he was fortunate enough to secure a crop of peaches, still it was 

 believed that grapes were sure, and as peaches were not, the element of 

 certainty, an important fact in agriculture, prevailed; and thus it has 

 come about that almost everyone for miles around has set out grape- 

 vines, until now, if all were bearing fruit in reasonably good quantity, the 

 amount would be indeed great. The few oldest vineyards, that were 

 planted twenty-eight years, occupied elevated portions of land bordering 

 an extensive valley reaching to the west and southwest, and the subse- 

 quent growers for several years thereafter chose for their vineyards sim- 

 ilar situations. As a fact, there was never any material damage from 

 frost, either in spring or fall, to the vines or the fruit in these old vine- 

 yards; thus it was that people had learned to regard grapes as among the 

 safest of all crops on which to depend for a livelihood. 



Not until the spring of 1894 were the grapes ever greatly injured by 

 frost. On the night of the 28th of May of that year the mercury descended 

 to 28 degrees in places, and great injury was done to vegetation; grapes 

 particularly, being the most valuable of our fruit crops, the injury to 

 them, which was great, was the most seriously felt. 



