1857.] Cincinnati Horticulttiral Society — Proceedings. 5G7 



CINCINNATI HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Cincinnati, Saturday, December 5. 



. Vice-Presideut Stoms in the chair. Minutes read and approved. 



Report of the Special Committee on Disesises of the Grape was presented and read by 

 Mr. Buchanan, and attracted the most profound attention of the Society. On motion the 

 report was received and adopted, with an order for publication. The following is the 

 report in full : 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON GRAPE CULTURE. 



At a meeting of the Society, on the 10th of July last, the undersigned were appointed 

 a committee to inquire into the feasibility of grape culture for wine-making, as a remun- 

 erative crop and to suggest such remedies for mildew and other incidental diseases of th'3 

 grape as might be supported by facts. After mature deliberation your committee presents 

 the following as the result of its investigations : 



That the c rop may be made amply remunerative in this vicinity and elsewhere, in 

 positions favorable for its cultivation, there can he no doubt. The experience of many 

 years by numerous cultivators has decided this question beyond a cavil. The best proof 

 in support of this assertion is, tliat grape culture is now wide-spread throughout the West 

 and South-west, and largely on the increase. For every vineyard abandoned from 

 bad position, caprice or carelessness, twenty new ones are planted. Tliat the crop — like 

 most other crops — is subject to casualities, no one will deny ; but experience has proved 

 it to be as reliable as the apple, the hardiest of all our fruits. Even this year — the worst 

 for mildew aud rot that we have ever had — a majority of our vineyards in this vicinity 

 will more than pay expenses, and a few will yield a handsome profit, while a small 

 number prove almost an entire failure. In Missouri, the vintage this year is the best 

 ever known in that State — some of the vineyards producing over oue thousand gallons to 

 the acre ; aud iu Georgia, even after injury from late spring frosts, the yield is very good. 

 It is estimated that in this resion vineyards favorably situated will average, for a series of 

 years with ordinary attention, two hundred gallons to the acre. It is known that one 

 hundred gallons per acre will more than pay expenses. From these data the crop would 

 appear to be remunerative. 



The great enemies to grape culture in this climate are the diseases known as the mil- 

 dew aud the rot, both closely allied, and both arising from atmospheric changes. A 

 sudden cliaoga of temperature \v\\\ produce mildew, in the form of a white powder, 

 on the newly-formed bunches of grapes, and at a later period the rot, when the 

 b'^rries are almost full grown, is caused by the fungi known as the mildew, set- 

 tling on the pedicel of the berry, and on the berry itself, discoloring and destroy- 

 ing it. In a brief report like the present, it would be useless lo attempt a detailed 

 scientific description of these diseases, for they are well known to all vine-dressers. 

 And the comra'ttee regrets to state that no certain remedy has yet been discovered 

 for their prevention or cure. 



On gravelly or sandy soils, or porous or well-druined subsoils, these diseases 

 are 1- ss prevalent than on strong clay lands, and hill sides are preferable io level 

 or gently undulating positions. But no position has been found entirely free from 

 them ; nor has any kind of special cultivation or of pruning, after many experi- 

 ments, been successful as a remedy. 



