^s 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



value of their wood lots, Mr. Craig; said 

 their estimates varied from twenty dollars to 

 three hundred dollars, the averag-e being 

 fifty dollars per acre. This he considered a 

 moderate estimate, for said he, with wood 



worth four dollars a cord, about eighty dol- 

 lars worth of fuel would be taken out a 

 year, to say nothing of the value of fencing 

 material, etc. 



AN INCIDENT IN GEAPE GROWING 



ALEX. McNEIL, ESQ., 



ACTING CHIfcF FRUIT DIVISION, OTTAWA. 



^TAHIRTY years ago a few small vineyards 

 JL demonstrated what Essex County 

 could do in grape growing, but it was not 

 until the early '8o's that the grape fever was 

 epidemic. Hundreds of acres were planted, 

 and the Essex Concord grape became the 

 standard of excellence. Many of these ear- 

 lier vineyards made money for the owners, 

 and encouraged planting far beyond the 

 needs of the market for table grapes, and 

 the inevitable fall in prices came all too soon. 



But the low prices of grapes stimulated 

 another industry — winemaking. A year or 

 two more and winemaking had reached the 

 limit of the home market and was accumu- 

 lating stock that might, in the ordinary 

 course of events, have impressed the foreign 

 markets, for the largest Essex winemakers 

 did not follow the foolish practice of at- 

 tempting to imitate foreign wines of all 

 sorts, but made a pure, sound claret, with 

 characteristics of its own, that placed it 

 on a par with the best foreign wines of its 

 class. 



No doubt capital would have been forth- 

 coming soon to place this upon the market, 

 had it not been for the unfortunate frost of 

 1899, that root-killed not only the peach 

 orchards of Essex, but 75 per cent of the vine- 

 yards as well. With giapes enough still for 

 table purposes and no great demand from the 

 •winemen, there was little encouragement to 



replant, yet prices were somewhat better and 

 vineyardists, if not buoyant, were at least 

 hopeful. 



This, however, was the last gleam vouch- 

 safed to the unfortunate grape-grower. In 

 1 90 1 the black rot appeared in several of 

 the older vineyards. This year, favored by 

 the excessive humidity of the growing 

 months, the rot made almost a complete 

 sweep. Occasionally a grower might gather 

 a few baskets in some favored spot, but 

 complete and absolute failure was the rule. 

 The writer, with twelve acres of good vines, 

 the remnants of twenty-five acres, did not 

 gather one basket of good fruit. A neigh- 

 bor, with thirty acres, did not put a picker 

 in his vineyard. The result is that grape 

 growing will cease in Essex except for local 

 markets. Of course the rot can be con- 

 trolled by spraying with the Bordeaux mix- 

 ture, but such additional expense would 

 render competition hopeless with sections 

 where the rot is not yet known, and where 

 freight rates are not so high. 



And thus will pass out of existence vine- 

 yards that once were measured by hundreds 

 of acres, and with them may go some of the 

 fond dreams of the planters. Yet the stern 

 discipline of partial failure is sometimes 

 necessary to develop the full measure of the 

 strength of the individual as well as the 

 greatest capacity of a country. 



