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On the Utility of Planting Hops near Grape Fines, in 

 preventing the destruction of the Grapes by insects* 

 by James Mease, M. D. 



Read September, 1816. 



It is well known to most of those who have attempted 

 the cultivation of foreign grapes in the country, that they 

 do not succeed owing to the influence of mildew, rapid 

 variation in the temperature, and punctures made in the 

 fruit by insects particularly the black wasp : while on the 

 contrary, that they succeed very well in Philadelphia 

 where they are more sheltered, where the influence of the 

 sensible qualites of the air is less felt, and the insects 

 fewer than in the country. The operation of some of the 

 causes mentioned is beyond our controul, but for one of 

 them, viz. insects, a remedy it is believed is within our 

 reach, and that is to plant a hop-vine at the side of the 

 grape-vine. For this discovery we are indebted to ' . Red- 

 man, Esq. of New Windsor, Bucks county, opposite 

 Bordenton, on the Delaware ; who made it in the follow- 

 ing accidental way. Having a grape-vine, the fruit of 

 which had been annually destroyed by insects, and wish- 

 ing to have shade near the vine, he planted a hop-vine at 

 the root of the grape-vine ; the consequence has been, 

 that it has borne fruit for the two last years : the bitter- 

 ness of the hop plant, and the effluvium emitted from it, 

 probably prevented the insects from approaching or feed- 

 ing on the grape-vine entwined by the hop plant. A lady 

 to whom Mr. Redman mentioned the fact of the utility of 

 the hop in preventing the grape from insects, told him that 



