Reports on Grapes. 



301 



conditions of my vineyax'd. It is 

 located on the southern slope of an 

 elevation, or hill, rising 80 or 100 feet 

 above the low and wet plain, formerly 

 prairie, but now all in fields cultivated 

 in wheat and corn. On this elevation 

 woodland and prairie formerly met, 

 and the ground now occupied by my 

 vineyard was covered with hazel, 

 sumach, sassafras, wild plums, &c., &c., 

 and all were encircled with wild grape- 

 vines — summer and winter grapes 

 {cestivalis and cordifolia)— which wound 

 themselves around the tops of the 

 bushes, climbed to the trees, and hung 

 down from their branches in graceful 

 garlands waving in the gentle breeze, 

 which came refreshingly over the 

 green sward of the prairie. 



I may state it here, that I find among 

 the wild grape vines one which I con- 

 sider the more northern cousin of the 

 Scuppernong of the South : its wood 

 or canes do not resemble that of other 

 grapevines, but if deprived of its leaves 

 it looks very much like the wood 

 of an elder-bush ; leaves on the upper 

 and lower side of a bright shining 

 green, heart shaped, indented and 

 pointed ; fruit not in bunches, but in 

 umbels like elder, with a few small 

 berries only, in consequence,! suppose, 

 of imperfect impregnation, since these 

 umbels in the proper season show a 

 large number of blossom-buds. 



The soil of my vineyard is a rich 

 mould, the subsoil heavy, tenacious 

 clay, which when cut with a sharp in- 

 strument presents a smooth, greasy 

 surface; in trenching my ground two 

 feet deep, and inverting it, from 4 to 6 

 inches of this clay were brought to the 

 surface ; this bed of clay has been as- 

 certained to be 14 feet deep, gravel 



and sand then are mixed with it in 

 large proportions. 



My first vineyard — six acres of 

 Catawba — was planted in 1851 and the 

 next following years. I need say no 

 more about this grape than that my 

 experiences with it coincide with those 

 of others who have cultivated it ; yet, 

 fickle as it is, it was my first love, and 

 whenever in a favorable season it 

 smiles ujDon me with its luscious fruit 

 and delicious wine, all its defects are 

 forgotten and forgiven, and I have not 

 3"et had the heart to divorce myself 

 from it. 



In 1867 I hail an abundant crop, 

 equally satisfactory in quality as in 

 quantity. In 1868 I had a half cx'op 

 only, but of excellent qualit3^ This 

 last spring the blossom-buds developed 

 promisingly, but man}^ of them dropped 

 off before the blossoming season; and 

 during that season, and after it, mil- 

 dew set in, and was followed by the 

 rot, and now not one-tenth of an aver- 

 age crop of fruit remains; even the 

 vines and foliage present a stunted and 

 diseased appearance, and I shall have 

 difficulty in finding proper canes for 

 next year's bearing wood. 



A small vineyard of Concord was 

 planted iii 1860, and was afterwards 

 increased to about three acres. As 

 soon as they commenced bearing fruit 

 they showed signs of the diseases 

 which our cultivated grapes are heir 

 to, but not to any alarming degree 

 until the present year. At present 

 more than half the fruit has been af- 

 fected and dropped off, and the disease 

 is yet progressing. 



The Norton is healthy ; it is an cesti- 

 valis, and evidently feels at home here. 

 It has not lost a berry during the wet 



