Training of the Herhemont. 



181 



TRAINING OF THE HERBEMONT. 



Mr. George Hlsmann : 



As I see in the May number no 

 remarks about the frost of the IGth 

 and 17th of April, I will report to you 

 that Concord has suffered badly, Nor- 

 ton's but little, and other varieties a 

 good deal, but the doi'mant buds, 

 which pushed out branches, show a 

 good deal of fruit, especially on Con- 

 cord, and we may count on a two-third 

 crop yet, if nothing else should happen. 



Herbemont has suffered severely by 

 the early frost in fall, and most of the 

 buds which had escaped were killed by 

 the frost of the 17th of April. The 

 cause why the Herbemont wood is so 

 easily injured b}' frost, is, I think, to 

 be sought in its late growth in fall, 

 being ^-et green when early frost sets 

 in, as has been the case for the last 

 two years. 



Can 3'ou not advise us of a method 

 by which its wood va^y be ripened 

 sooner, as, for instance, by summer 

 pinching and pruning, or \>y not culti- 

 vating late in summer. By any advice 

 you could give upon this subject, 3'ou 

 would much oblige the man}^ friends 

 of this excellent grape. 



Yours, truly, 



Henky Nahm. 



Augusta, Mo.,M:iy '20, lt<70. 



Geo. Husjiann, Editor Grape Cult.: 



In your article about the " Effects of 

 the Cold Snap," (June number, page 

 1-12^) you report on nearly all varieties, 

 but omit to report about the Herhemont. 

 It is one of the varieties which were 

 not advanced enough that the frost (of 

 last Easter eve) could do ax\y harm, 

 and still we doubt that j^ou could name 



it among those " not injured at all." 

 With us, at least, the Herbemont 

 shows but very little fruit this season. 

 Our vines of this variet}' were covered 

 last fall, uncovered this spring in proper 

 season, and we ascribe the failure to 

 the very wet winter, when the wet, 

 cold covering injured the buds, so much 

 so, that we intend in future to try with 

 a portion of our Herbemont vines 

 whether merely laying down to the 

 ground is not a sufficient protection 

 against freezing, while we would avoid 

 the danger of their fruit being killed by 

 the cold dampness of the ground in a 

 wet winter. 



Should you disagree with us on this 

 s ubject, you will at least approve that 

 we try to study in the school of disas- 

 ter and to add our lessons to those of 

 other studying and suffering grape 

 growers. Yours, 



IsiDOR Bush & Son. 



BusHBERG, Mo., Jiiiie, 1S70. 



[As both of the above letters refer 

 to the same subject we publish them 

 together, and thank our friends for call- 

 ing our attention to this subject, while 

 we plead guilty to a serious oversight 

 in not uiving the needed advice before 

 it was asked. 



We 'think Mr. Nahm on the right 

 track, and believe that we can assure 

 our friends Bush, that they need not 

 fear an}- damage from covering with 

 earth, if the wood is ripe lohen thus 

 covered. They must look for the evil 

 further back than they have done, 

 namely, to the late growth of the 

 Herbemont, Cunningham and similar 

 varieties. If we can fully and per- 



