MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 315 



bition, last fall, the grapes produced on that fertilized and well cultivated 

 land, without any protection, but raised in the opfen air, in competition 

 with a great number of the same variety, were the most perfect bunches 

 and received first premiums, and the grapes were Labruscas. It is said, 

 the higher grape vines are located, or raised on trees, they were not 

 effected by rot. Now, on a high bluff, whose feet are washed by the 

 turbulent waters of the Missouri river is a vineyard located, and set in 

 promiscuous varieties of grapes. The crop on that vineyard was, for 

 many years, a good one. In later years, they failed, and rotted badly ; 

 a few rods east of it, is about an acre set in Norton and Cynthiana, 

 which have produced full crops every year, cultivation or no cultivation, 

 and a few rods east of that, on the steep, sloping hillside, facing towards 

 the east in an open, wide ravine and the Missouri river, where barely 

 soil enough could be found by terraceing to plant the grapevines — there 

 never, by no cultivation whatever, was any complaint heard of either 

 mildew or rot, and the grapes were Concord. In spite of the spores of 

 that injurious fungus floating in all directions, a full crop of fruit of 

 healthy and perfect bunches was raised every year, and the land was a 

 limestone ledge. We find the same in the animal body, and the human 

 constitution. The weak and poor ones are the easiest effected by a pre- 

 vailing epidemic, while the well nourished,\ healthy and robust constitu- 

 tions withstand the attacks the best. 



Botanists have classified the American grapevines. Catawba and 

 Concord are marked Labrusca, Norton and Cynthiana belong in the 

 class, Aestivalis, Goethe is a Hybrid and Elvira is a Riparia. They are 

 easily distinguished by any viticulturist. Now, the Labruscas have a 

 tendency to spread their roots near the surface of the ground, are greedy 

 feeders, and are, by reason aforesaid, subject to be irritated by the least 

 change of our variable weather. The warm days in early spring cause 

 the sap to rise and the buds to swell before the normal time, and are, 

 therefore, injured by the late frost and by the ravages of the steel blue 

 beetle, which feeds on the swelling bud, and has destroyed the prospect 

 for a fruit crop before we are aware of it. 



Varieties which are not hardy enough (and I believe every variety, 

 even the hardiest) to withstand the severity of our winters, should be 

 pruned in fall and laid down on the ground and covered with coarse lit- 

 ter, which is to be held down by throwing a few shovels full of ground 

 on it, and should not be raised before the latter part of April or early 

 May. 



Norton and Cynthiana send their roots deep in the ground, are later 

 in appearance in the spring, and consequently healthier and not so much 



