AND WINE MAKING. 105 



The Cross- Wire System has small posts set by each 

 vine ; a single wire runs from post to j^ost in each direc- 

 tion six and a half feet from the ground. The trunk of 

 the vine is tied to the post, and four arms are trained, 

 one along each wire. Lighter posts are required by this 

 system tlian any other, but the i)osts at the ends of the 

 rows have to be braced or anchored. It admits working 

 each way with a horse. This system is of recent intro- 

 duction, and possesses considerable merit. 



DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



The remarkable health, vigor and productiveness of 

 the vine led cultivators to believe that the various dis- 

 eases which hftd made grape growing unprofitable in so 

 many other localities would find no j^lace here. Even 

 when reports of the ravages of black rot in New Jersey 

 reached us, cultivators of large experience, like the late 

 A. J. Caywood, believed that our favorable surroundings 

 would prevent the disease from causing serious injury here. 



Others believed every precaution to prevent its intro- 

 duction and spread should be taken, and kept themselves 

 fully informed of the investigations and experiments 

 made by the direction of the Commissioner of Agricul- 

 ture. Before the black rot made its appearance liere, 

 several persons had experimented with the Bordeaux 

 mixture as a preventive of mildew, and reported results 

 to the United States Department of Agriculture. 



In the year 1887 black rot appeared to considerable 

 extent in some vineyards in the town of Gardner, Ulster 

 Co. The next year the crop of these vineyards was 

 nearly destroyed. In 1889 the disease made its appear- 

 ance in nearly every part of the valley of the Hudson. 

 With the inadequate facilities then possessed for spray- 

 ing, many vineyards had small blocks of vines sprayed 

 or sprinkled with the Bordeaux mixturQ. Tho results 

 were umformly encouraging. 



