Arkansas Gossip. 



147 



main length, however, remain bare 

 and brown, and do not put forth any- 

 more. Norton's Virginia and Herbe- 

 niont vines are not materiall}' injured. 

 The latter, strange to sa}-, withstands 

 winter cold, and escapes the frosts of 

 spring better than an}' other variety, 

 notwithstanding its character for ten- 

 derness farther north. Were it not 

 for the mildew to which it is very lia- 

 ble in summer, it would be first upon 

 our list. The Delaware stood the test 

 better than most of the others, and 

 shows some fruit remaining, although 

 the tender vines of two summers' 

 growth seem killed to the ground. 

 The Goethe, too, exhibits powers of 

 endurance above the average. On 

 the whole, however, your advice to 

 our people is confirmed. For a cer- 

 tain wine crop we must look to Nor- 

 ton's Virginia and Cynthiana, and 

 grapes of that class. For table grapes, 

 we will, I hope, hang on longer yet to 

 the old Catawba, and trust that and 

 the Goethe principally. I must con- 

 tend that, taking it all in all, I have 

 never seen a better grape than the 

 Catawba. Last season I had them 

 thi-ee-fourths of an inch in diameter, 

 and of most luscious flavor. True, 

 they rot; but grapes, like ourselves, all 

 have their failings. Perhaps our longer 

 seasons ripen them better. I have 

 never eaten the Catawba in Missouri, 

 but I have in Ohio, and I am sure they 

 are superior there. 



I remember, when a young vine- 

 grower, that Mr. Longworth one day 

 in a conversation pooh I poohed ! the 

 idea that my vines in Tennessee would 

 be hurt by frost. He said that they 

 always put out from dormant buds 

 new fruit-bearino- shoots. I have since 



that had much experience in frosts, 

 and find the vines very capricious, ap- 

 parentl}', in that respect. One year I 

 had a most excellent crop from the 

 secondary shoots after the first were 

 killed. This was in Tennessee in 1858. 

 At other times the canes have failed 

 to put forth at all. It depends upon 

 the severity of the frost. The crop 

 is not necessarily lost when the first 

 shoots are killed back to the cane. 

 When that is simply the result of frost, 

 properly speaking, produced by radia- 

 tion from the earth, the dormant buds 

 take the place of the others. After 

 an actual freeze, such as we had on 

 the morning of the 17th April, dor- 

 mant buds and all are killed together. 

 These latter spells are produced by 

 cold settling down on us from above, 

 which seems to permeate everj'thing, 

 and against Avhich no covering is any 

 protection, short of a covering of 

 earth. Just now there is not one 

 dormant bud in a thousand putting 

 forth in the place of the dead shoots. 

 What fruit we have will be from the 

 later primary buds which had not 

 burst. 



I think it the curse of our climate 

 (although not frequent) that our win- 

 ters and early springs are so warm, 

 vegetation gets such growth, that 

 when killed by these abnormal and 

 extraordinary' April freezings, the 

 shock is too great for recuperation. 

 With you the vines are less advanced, 

 I suppose, and rally more easily. 

 However, as I said, we ai-e but rarely 

 exposed to it. Let us hope we will 

 not suffer again in the next decade, 

 when grape-growing will be too well 

 established to suffer from it very ma- 

 terially. 



