146 



The Grape Culturist. 



American wines than with the Euro- 

 pean, and think the rule will be found 

 generally true, 



" that wherever a va- 



riety of grapes flourishes best aud re- 

 mains most healthy, there Avill it pro- 

 duce the best wine." — Ed. 



AEKANSAS GOSSIP. 



Friend IIusmann : 



Mourn with us. On the eve of Eas. 

 ter day our little vineyards and the 

 garden trellises of our amateurs were 

 a goodl}' sight. The canes had put 

 forth plentifully of young shoots, 

 loaded with flower bunches. The win- 

 ter had been mild; the wood-growth 

 of last year clear and healthy. The 

 buds had opened evenly, and the young 

 shoots had, many of them, been thin- 

 ned and pinched. All was lovely; and 

 this year, we fondly thought, was to 

 be demonstrated to the unbelieving of 

 onr land, that grape-growing is a suc- 

 cess. All da}' long a murk}' upper 

 current of clouds had passed over us 

 from the north, and at sunset an omi- 

 nous streak of light appeared in the 

 northwest. A bitter frost was the 

 most we apprehended, and prepara- 

 tions were made accordingly. Tender 

 garden plants were covered, and sheets 

 thrown over the choicest vines. Be- 

 fore daylight there was a crust of fro- 

 zen ground, and many of us were out 

 with our watering pots to save the 

 gardens. The sun ai'oso on a glitter- 

 ing scene of icicles, the result of our 

 sprinkling. It had been a regular 

 winter freeze. The thermometer stood 

 at 28 deg., and almost every living 

 vegetable thing was dead! dead! dead! 

 The profane cursed, and the humbler 

 of our enthusiasts felt disposed to cry. 

 It certainly was an awful scene of 

 blasted hopes and just expectations. 



Of course, in the infancy of grape- 

 growing amongst us, the actual pecu- 

 niary loss was small. It is the moral 

 damage that is most to be regretted. 

 Our people were just waking up to the 

 business of grape-growing, and begin- 

 ning experiments. With many of 

 them this was their first year of ex- 

 pected results in the way of fruit and 

 Avine. The danger is that they Avill 

 become discouraged, and not only de- 

 cline further planting, but neglect fur- 

 ther attention to the vines they have. 

 It is hard to get them all to reflect 

 that this is a pure accident, such as 

 may not happen again in a quarter of 

 a century. Indeed it rarely does. I 

 have tables of the temperature at this 

 place of each day since 1840, with few 

 omissions. Reviewing that, I find 

 these April spells to have occurred 

 only four times in all that period. All 

 the other years were such as to have 

 produced a fair croj) of grapes. There 

 is no country in luirope that will show 

 a better record. 



In this case, even, the loss will not 

 be total, although it seems a miracle 

 that any escaped. Taylor and Clin- 

 ton were further advanced, and are 

 entirely destroyed. Concord, Cataw- 

 ba, and others of the labrusca family, 

 had all the first shoots killed, but a 

 few later buds have since put forth 

 about the lower j^arts of the canes, and 

 will give us 20 per cent., perhaps, of a 

 crop. The canes themselves in their 



