91 



it, but I think a good sizetl pepper box about the best thing to use 

 while doctoring the plant. Constant care and watching is neces- 

 sary, for the disease must not be allowed to spread. If it is to 

 be checked at all one must begin early to combat it, if allowed 

 to have its course the result will be no crop of grapes for that 

 year. 



Rose Bugs sometimes come in myriads and destroy both fruit 

 and foliage. I know of no way except to kill as many as possi- 

 ble by hand picking. I have tried tobacco-water, whale-oil soap, 

 and lime, all to no purp(jse. the bugs seem to be proof against 

 all the poisons usually adopted to destroy insects. 



After twenty years of study and labor among trees and plants 

 I would not recommend any one to set out a vineyard in Essex 

 County in the hope of ever making it a remunerative employ- 

 ment, much less would I suggest the possibility of ever procuring 

 a first class grape bv planting the seeds of any of our wild na- 

 tive sorts. While they have hardiness and earliness, they are 

 all of them foxy and lack nearly all the essential qualities ac- 

 corded good fruit, besides out of a hundred seedlings perhaps 

 not more than two or three will ever bear at all and these seldom 

 come up to a higher standard than the parent. Let every man 

 who has a few rods of spare room in his garden set out a few 

 vines of those varieties best suited to his taste. Don't try to 

 get every new sort you see advertised and don't place too much 

 credit in the high sounding story told by the printed circulars 

 you will from time to time receive just as soon as you commence 

 to plant grapes and your name becomes known to the vendors of 

 nursery stock. Set out a Concord or two for your stand by or 

 right bower, and you may put in as many of Rogers' Hybrids as 

 you have time and patience to take care of. Never forget to 

 cover all of your Rogers' vines every winter. I throw mine 

 down on the ground and cover with hay or earth about three or 



