PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 25 



generated to counteract the elfects of the frost, utterly failed. I have 

 not heard of tlie least advantage derived in any case. 



An acquaintance living on the east side of Mile lake states that he was 

 determined to save his grapes. They yielded him a nice income last year, 

 and he wished to secure a like result the present season. His grapes 

 were all right up to the last great frost, and he and his family, with other 

 assistance, worked all night with a team drawing straw— tlie bottom of 

 an old stack — and kept up continuous smudges tnroughout the vineyard 

 duriug the entire night. He states that there was a thick cloud of smoke 

 over all the vineyard all the time. Yet, notwithstanding, fruit and leaves 

 were entirely destroyed; not a green thing left save close to the hres. The 

 vineyard looked afterward precisely as did others in the vicinity, all of 

 them presenting a blackened, withered aspect. 



It occurs to me that, with the temperature about at the freezing point — 

 not much below, not more than a degree or two below — smudges might be 

 valuable to save, but when the temperature drops to six or eight degrees 

 below the freezing point, artificial heat and smoke do not count. Under 

 such conditions, situation is the only saving clause, and the chief requi- 

 site in situation is elevation. 



There are no vineyards in the vicinity of Lawton on high lands that had 

 the foliage of the vines entirely destroyed. Some of them were touched 

 by the frost so as to be easily apparent, but in others it required close 

 observation to note any effects at all. It is the opinion of the best grow- 

 ers and observers here, without exception, so far as I know, that the 

 grapes on the high lands were not destroj^ed by the frosts that cut down 

 the lowland vinevards, but that thev were blasted bv the first cold wind 

 and the succeeding bitter snow storm. 



So far as could be seen, the high-ground vineyards were not changed 

 by the frosts that followed the storms above mentioned. The leaves and 

 clusters remained the same in appearance after the frosts as before. 



The change of color in the clusters, previously spoken of, took place, as 

 heretofore described, as the result of the first storms, to whose biting 

 influence the loss of the fruit is attributed. 



It is to be remembered that these cold storms are of far less frequent 

 occurrence at that season than frosts, and notwithstanding the latter, had 

 it not been for the former, the grape crop in this vicinity would, probably, 

 have equaled that of last year. It is generally believed here that if it 

 had not been for the blighting effect of the first storms, and in spite of the 

 frosts, the high-land vineyards would have borne a fair crop of grapes. 

 There will be some fruit as it is, but only a meagre quantity — a small per- 

 centage of a crop. 



Thus the late experience of the past two seasons, and of all seasons 

 when late spring frosts have occurred, verifies the theory early enter- 

 tained and acted upon by the first growers of grapes in this locality, that 

 to insure success, growers should select elevated situations in which to 

 plant the vines. Not a table-land, however high, but land with alternat- 

 ing elevations and depressions — of uneven topography — preferably land 

 rising from an extensive valley which reaches to the west and north and 

 southwest, the elevated land continuing with broken contour. 



