300 



The Grape Culturist, 



principally in the physiological con- 

 dition of this vine. How such leathery 

 leaves, large grained wood, and natur- 

 ally plethoric habits, could overcome 

 healthfully a southern climate, will be 

 visible very soon to every reflecting 

 vintner, and especially if j^lanted deep 

 in rich ground. 



About the seedlings and new grapes 

 which I took out of the dark in a set- 

 tlement inhabited long ago by French 

 missionaries, who always experiment- 

 ed with the grape, I will write when 

 I have a chance to send you some 

 roots, which you may safely plant in 

 the experimental vineyard at Bluffton 

 as valuable, as I tasted the fruit, and 

 planted them in my vineyard. 

 Respectfully yours. 



Dr. C. Horn. 



[We had to omit j-our descrip- 

 tion of trellis, as it was not plain 

 enough, we thought, to be under- 

 stood by our readers. Please fur- 

 nish us a plain, concise sketch, and 

 we shall be glad to publish it. We 

 think your conclusion in regard to 

 northern fox grapes rather too 

 sweeping. It is not the leathery foli- 

 age which the Concord bears Avhich 

 has enabled it to withstand all effects 

 of weather. Wherever we found much 

 rot upon the Concord this season, Ave 

 also found that the vines were pruned 

 too short. If our readers will give 

 their Concords enough to do, and let 

 them bear their fruit mostly on the 

 laterals, or spurs on old wood, we think 

 the}^ will be troubled but little bj- the 

 rot. The Concord can not be kept in 

 the same bounds as the Catawba and 

 Delaware. It is a vine of astonishing 

 vigor and productiveness, and this 

 tendency should be indulged. You 



can hardly overcrop a Concord. You 

 also forget that the Goethe, a variety 

 which you justly recommend, has the 

 same (as you call them) plethoric 

 habits as the Concord, and is a des- 

 cendant of northern foxes on the one 

 side and vitis vinifera on the other. 

 —Ed.] 



Lookinq-Qlx88 Vinetahds, St. Clair Co., \ 

 Ills., August, 1869. \ 



Editor Grape Culturist : 



I have been watching in your valu- 

 able paper, and in other similar peri- 

 odicals, the reports on the condition 

 and crop prospects of the vineyards in 

 the Mississippi Valley, but have only 

 seen reports from a few of the vine- 

 growing localities, and they all agree 

 with my own sad observations, that 

 the year 1869 is a most unpropitious 

 one to grape culture ; and the same 

 causes which hitherto have prevented 

 me from giving you an account of my 

 vineyard may have operated in a like 

 manner upon others, viz., a natural 

 and happy propensity of the human 

 mind to shun unpleasant and disagree- 

 able reflections, and to cultivate rather 

 and dwell upon pleasing thoughts and 

 subjects. If I now act contrarv to 

 this rule, it is done out of a sense of 

 duty, which I believe I owe to the 

 importance of this branch of agricul- 

 ture, and in the hope that what I have 

 to say may, to some extent, be inter- 

 esting if not profltable to others, and 

 may, at the same time, gain for me 

 valuable suggestions and advice from 

 the observations and experience of 

 others, who, like me, are engaged in 

 this enterprise, so rich both in pleasure 

 and in disappointment. 



To be able to speak understandingly 

 it may be proper to refer to the local 



