94 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



fruit is more likely that of the black -rot. B. T. Gal- 

 loway, Chief of the Division of Vegetable Pathology in 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, tells me 

 that specimens of grapes affected with "charbon," col- 

 lected by an early botanical traveler in the Ohio Valley, 

 have the black -rot. 



Alphonse Loubat, who wrote the third American 

 grape book ("The American Vine Dresser's Guide," New 

 York, 1827, alternate pages English and French), and 

 who made an experiment at grape culture on Long 

 Island, was also overtaken by the vine diseases. "Here 

 he strove," writes Andrew S. Fuller, in the "Record of 

 Horticulture" for 1866, "against mildew and sun -scald 

 for several years, but had to yield at last, as the ele- 

 ments were too much for human exertions to overcome. 

 An old resident of Brooklyn related to the writer, a 

 few years since, many incidents connected with Lou- 

 bat's experiments ; one of which was, that to prevent 

 mildew on the fruit, each bunch was enveloped in 

 paper ; consequently they had to be uncovered when 

 exhibited to visitors. This, when the grapes were 

 ripening, consumed most of Loubat's time." Spooner 

 says that Loubat "planted a vineyard of forty acres at 

 New Utrecht, Long Island, which had 150,000 vines of 

 various sizes, and for some j^ears flattered himself with 

 hopes, which resulted in disappointment." Spooner' s 

 account of his own experiments illustrates the common 

 experience with the foreign grape, and also affords 

 further evidence that fungous disease was the chief 

 cause of the disasters: "In the year 1827 I planted 

 fifty foreign vines, some of which were from France, 

 and obtained from Mr. Parmentier and Mr. Loubat 

 others were from Germany, and obtained from Mr. 



