Summer Meeting. 53 



and Taylor Prolific. Our last planting has been Early Harvest, on ac- 

 count of its earliness and being a prolific bearer. It is somewhat tender, 

 and we lose a crop occasionally, but find it profitable. No more rust than 

 in Snyder. The drouth is the worst enemy tO' successful blackberry cul- 

 ture, and for that reason will discard the Taylor. We grow our black- 

 berries between our apple trees and can see no bad effects as yet ; in fact, 

 our trees are best where we cultivate small fruits. The bushes keep the 

 winds from blowing away the leaves from trees and bushes, and they 

 make the soil like forest soil when worked in. There is a disadvantage, 

 however, in growing them in the orchard, as they are in the way of spray- 

 ing and gathering the apples. 



Pres. Robnett. — I have a blackberry patch and get a good deal of 

 pleasure out of it. I do not cultivate them. I have a good many leaves 

 in my yard and mulch the vines with leaves and grass. Blackberry 

 patches in the woods always gather the leaves, and I believe this is a law 

 of nature, and that mulching is the best thing for the vines. I can take 

 better care of them in this way than by cultivating them. 



WHAT JACK FROST HAS DONE FOR TFIE GRAPES IN 1903. 



(By Herman Thieme, Springfield, Mo.) 



A request to write a paper on grapes and Jack Frost arrived at my 

 place about the* same date. How can any body write a paper on grajpes 

 when it makes you sick to look at your vineyard? I had the best pros- 

 pect for a grape crop I ever had, but on the morning of the May i, I 

 found my hopes all gone, after working all night keeping fire and smoke 

 on three sides of vineyard, but it did no good whatever, and for a week 

 or more it looked as if the vines were killed to the ground, but they 

 look better now. We will have voung wood for next year's crop. We 

 will have a few grapes of all kinds ; my vineyard will average about 

 two pounds to the vine. The Norton's Virginia and Cynthiana will 

 make about half of a crop and the Ozark vines did not have a green leaf 

 left; the Stark Star will have a few grapes. I have twelve McPike in 

 bearing; one of them is about ten days later in budding out and was 

 not damagesd by frost, and I think this one vine is a true McPike. Of 

 the new varieties the St. Louis is very promising; it is a black grape 

 found in St. Eouis, supposed to be a seedling of the Concord. Woodruff 

 Red, Goethe, Niagara, Moore's Diamond and Delaware are the varieties 



