56 FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



bome of them, such as Black Hamburg and Chasselas, have even fruited 

 successful!}^ for many years, especially when isolated or trained against 

 walls; while they more generall}" do well when isolated in cold houses. 

 But the general truth of the first statement holds good. It is also well 

 known that some of our native vines, which for a while were universal fa- 

 vorites on account of their productiveness, vigor and other excellent quali- 

 ties, have of late years sadly deteriorated. Among such the Catawba was 

 for a long time the popular grape; but its cultivation is now entirel}'^ aban- 

 doned in many parts of the Mississippi Vallej', and even at Hammondsport 

 and other parts of New York, and Nauvoo, Illinois, w^here it is still largely 

 cultivated, I learn from experienced grape-growers that it is fast on the de 

 cline. 



This deterioration — tJiis failure, hue been attributed to a vai'iety of 

 causes, for in the absence of anything definite and ascertainable to keep it 

 Avithin bounds, the speculative turn of our minds is sure to have full scope- 

 jind grasping at every shadow of 2)robability, leave no possible theory un- 

 wearched. As in all such cases, also, the mind gets lost in, and is satisfied to 

 vaguely rest with, the theory least provable; and to some occult and mys- 

 terious change of climate we are at last satisfied to attribute the change 

 though if the meteorological records were carefully examined, they would 

 probably show no difference in the mean annual condition of our climate 

 during the past half century. 



It is ver}^ natural to suppose that vines of European origin should be 

 less hardy in this country than our native varieties, that as in the case of the 

 vSpanish Chestnut, the English Grooseberry, etc., etc., there is something in 

 our climate which precludes their flourishing as well here as there. I would 

 by no means deny that such is the case, for it is this very comparative ten- 

 derness which predisposes them the more to the destructive agent of which 

 I am about to speak. Yet when we consider that in some parts of Europe, 

 where the Vine flourishes, the extremes of heat and cold are as great as here ; 

 that we possess a great variety of soil and climate, and that by covering and 

 other modes of protection in winter, avc may, whei"e necessary, counteract 

 the rigor of the latter — it would appear that we certainly have attributed 

 too much to climatic influence : and such a view is strengthened by the fact 

 that our native varieties, if free from the insect which forms the subject of 

 his article, usually do well when cultivated in Europe, and further that the 

 Vitis vinifera is not a native of Europe, but of western Asia. 



The above reflections are of a general character, but apply more par- 

 ticularly to the great State of Missouri, which is admitted to be, in many 

 parts, eminently adapted, both b}' soil and climate, to the cultivation of the 

 Vine. 



One of the reasons wh}^ the European vines do well in California, out- 

 side of and beyond the more favorable clime in that portion of the continent, 

 is, no doubt, because the insect which here aftects them, like many other 

 species common on this side of the llockj^ Mountains, has not yet crossed to 

 the other side. If such is the case, our California neighbors should take 

 warning from Europe, and gu.irJ, if possible, against an invasion. 



