Grape Humbugs and their Disseminators. 



1 "^ 



GRAPE HUMBUGS AND THEIR DISSEMINATORS. 



Unfoi'tuiuitel}' wc have, amoiiii; the 

 multitudes of earnest workers and 

 thinkers in our noble profession — men 

 wlio toil with earnest zeal for the 

 o-ood of the cause, also a small pro- 

 portion we may class as the sharks 

 and hyenas, men who are continually 

 ogling after the purses of their neigh- 

 bors, seeking how^ they ma}- devour 

 them, without regard whether those 

 taken in by them will receive the value 

 of their money, or whether they must 

 pay a high price for an entirely worth- 

 less thing. We feel it our duty to 

 warn our readers against all these 

 birds of pre}' which come to our 

 notice, although the task is not a 

 pleasant one. "We shall give only 

 facts which come under our observa- 

 tion, and will state here, once for all, 

 that our columns are open to all who 

 think themselves aggrieved or unjustl}- 

 assailed, to make their defense. 



Dr. J.C. Hj^de, formerly of Bluffton, 

 lately of Portland, Callaway count}^, 

 Mo., now of Brocton, N. Y., has taken 

 the liberty, on a speculating tour 

 made by him last fall, to exhibit 

 grapes as the Salem, which, he stated, 

 came from Bluffton, which were not 

 Salem. Latel}' he has asserted to a 

 friend of ours, who visited Brocton 

 and its surrounding vineyards, that we 

 had no true Salems at Bluffton, but 

 had, during the confusion existing in 

 regard to the numbers of Rogers' Hy- 

 brids, received the wrong number. 



Now, the Salem vines at Bluffton 

 came from two sources, of the relia- 

 bility of Avhich we will allow our 



readers to judge. The wood from 

 which the greater part was grown 

 came from a vine in our old vineyards 

 near Hermann, which was sent lis 

 from the Experimental gardens at 

 Washington, as No. 2;2, which Wm. 

 Saunders, Charles Downing, and many 

 members of the Am. Pom. Society saw 

 bearing on our grounds and pro- 

 nounced the true Salem. Hon. Mar- 

 shall P. Wilder, George W. Campbell, 

 and others whom we always consider- 

 ed good authority, pronounced it Sa- 

 lem at the exhibition, fall of 1867 ; 

 and Ave would rely on them at all 

 times, in preference to Dr. Hyde. 

 The other vines at Bluffton came from 

 the Salem-on-Erie nui'series, in the 

 spring of 1868. Whether this stock 

 is reliable, we leave the public and 

 themselves to say. At least, they seem 

 to think so. But the best of the mat- 

 ter is, that none of them have fruited 

 at Bluffton ; consequently Dr. Hyde 

 could not obtain any fruit of them 

 there. 



The upshot of the matter seems to 

 be this ; Dr. Hyde is at Brocton now, 

 seems to be strongly interested in the 

 Salem, and because we could not, in 

 justice to our readers, give a very fa- 

 vorable report of the Salem at Bluff- 

 ton or Hermann, the last year, as it 

 suffered a good deal from disease, and 

 has never j-et set fine bunches with us, 

 he tries to get over this by spreading 

 a report that the Salem Ave ha\'e is not 

 true. Such means to bolster up the 

 sinking reputation of any variety do 

 not seem honorable to us, hoAvever 



