76 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT 



cultivated varieties, especially the wliite ScuppenLO?ig, are highly esteemed in the South, 

 but do not produce fruit in the latitude of St. Louis. 



I recoguize only three other species of true Grape-vines in the territories of the 

 United States. The most remarkable of these is the Mustang grape of Texas, Vitis 

 candicans, Eugelm. {V. Mustangensis, Buckley,) a tall climber, with rather large, 

 rounded, almost toothless leaves, white, cottony on the under side, bearing large berries, 

 whicli, like those of the wild Labrusca, show different colors, greenish, claret and 

 bluish-black; and which, in its native country, are made into wine. In young shoots 

 and sprouts the leaves are usually deeply and elegantlj^nany lobed. Vitis Californica, 

 Bentham, the only wild grape of California, has rounded, downj'^ leaves, and small 

 berries, and is not made use of as far as known. Vitis Arizo7iica, Engclm., similar to 

 the last, but glabrous, with middle-sized berries, reported to be of a luscious taste. 

 Neither of these show a prominent raphe on the seed, so that this character is peculiar 

 to the first three species here enumerated. 



(15) The instances that have come to mj^ knowledge where varieties ofrinifera have, 

 in some measure, succeeded in this country when cultivated out-doors, are very few, 

 except around New Orleans and in some other parts of Louisiana. Successful fruiting 

 of this species is not uncommon there, and from all I can learn this exceptional fact 

 bears directly on the question of Phylloxera, because much of the la^^d is of a sandy 

 nature, and the water in most of it rises to within a foot or a few feet of the surface. It is 

 probable tliat success has attended the cultivation of this vine in such parts only of 

 Louisiana as afford these conditions. Such conditions are unfavorable to the growth 

 and increase of Phylloxera; and though it is generally supposed that the Grape-vine 

 must have a dry soil and will not endure wet feet, I am assured by Dr. .Tno. S. Copes, 

 of the New Orleans Academj'^ of Science, and by M. A. DuBois, wine merchant of the 

 same town, that the vines in that locality must necessarily have wet feet. There is 

 much other evidence to show that some varieties thrive with wet roots ; and the follow- 

 ing passages from an article detailing the experience of Mr. J. B. Garber, of Colum- 

 bia, Lancaster conntj', Pennsylvania, and confirmed by our well-known Saml. Miller, 

 of Blufllon,* are so full of meaning, unsuspected by their author, in connection with 

 what we know of Phylloxera, that I can not refrain from quoting them : 



* * ->:- You no doubt recollect that you and myself once being in Chester 

 county (at Mr. Carnogo's. I think), we noticed a grape vine of such luxuriant appear- 

 ance, and bearing so enormous a quantity of fine, perfectly healthy grapes, that we 

 both were in doubt as to the variety until the owner said it was the Catawba— which 

 we knew was a general failure in tliis section of country. Naturally we looked for the 

 cause of this extra liealthy vine ; we soon noticed that it stood just below tlie pump, 

 where all the waste water flowed over its roots, and that the wash-tubs were all emptied 

 in the same direction, with all the slops and waste water from the house. The ground 

 was continually soaked with \vater. * * * Tlie only place where I have seen 

 a Black Hamburg vine grown with any success in the open air, was in our neighboring 

 county of York. There on a low trellis about a hundred feet long, stood a row of this 

 variety on alow bank, two feet above the gutter where water was flowing nearly all the 

 time : here the vines had at least wet toesT if not wet feet, the year round. The vines 

 looked liealthy, and were loaded with a fair crop of fruit when I saw them some ten 

 years since. A near neighbor has his vines around the spring house, where the water 

 IS standing all about and over the roots, so raucli so that he has laid boards alongside 

 of the treUises to walk on. Hb is celebrated for taking the largest and best Isabella 

 grapes to market. His vines are free troni rot or mildew, and hold their leaves until 

 Irost removes them. My own Concord vines, growing where the roots can reach 

 water, are far more healthy, and produce more perfect and better grapes, than those 

 standing on higher and dryer ground— on a good wheat and corn soil. 



Is it not plain after the facts I have recorded, as to the susceptibility of European 

 vines and of the Catawba to Phylloxera, and as to the efficacy of water, in sufficient 



'Rural World, March 14, 1874. 



