46 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The diseases of the grape vine are mainly of a fungous character^ 

 sudh as mildew of the foliage and black rot of the berries. 

 Seve'ral successive moist seasons, favorable to the spread of these 

 troubles, will sometimes grow to seriously injure the crops and the 

 vines, but as a rule Massachusetts is not a great sufferer thereby. 

 We have an effective remedy in solutions of copper, but they 

 should be applied in such a manner as to prevent rather than cure 

 the disease. It is a case where a stitch in time saves nine. As I 

 before stated, three times in my experience of forty years the 

 seasons were so unpropitious that I failed to realize anything for 

 the crop, as its acid rendei'ed it unsalable. This condition I know 

 no means of preventing. 



My experience in gi'owing grapes for the market has been 

 limited to the Concord. Originally I set a number of varieties, 

 and have nearly every year continued to plant a single vine of 

 every new kind that the owners told large stories about, at first 

 trusting, but latterly only hoping, that something better than the 

 Concord might make its appearance. I have not yet seen it. A 

 few varieties earlier or later give me more or less satisfaction for 

 family use, but so far no one that tempts me to plant a duplicate 

 vine. Other growers, differently situated, find partial substitutes, 

 but I am sure that a well grown and thoroughly ripened Concord 

 grape never yet has gone begging for a customer. 



There exists in the community a somewhat extensively enter- 

 tained prejudice against swallowing the seeds of grapes. Many 

 people will not eat this fruit because of the fear of the malady 

 known as appendicitis. If they are obliged to crush the pulp to 

 get at and discard the seeds, they find the former so sour as to 

 destroy all the pleasure. This would not be the case if the grapes 

 were first-class and well ripened. Most of you are probably aware 

 that there is in every human being a small appendage to the 

 coecum, the commencement of the large intestine, called the 

 appendix vermiformis, which has no known function and appar- 

 ently no earthly use, except as it gives business to the surgeon 

 when it gets a patient into trouble. This appendage may become 

 inflamed either with or without a foreign body in it. Generally, 

 however, a collection of fecal matter in the form of a soft concre- 

 tion or stone is the cause of the inflammation. Most cases are so 

 mild as to cure themselves. Occasionally, however, the disease 

 pursues so rapid a course that nothing can prevent an early fatal 



