Historical 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Record. 59 



VITICULTURAL REMARKS 



ABOUT MILUEAV AND ROT. 



The foregoing articles on the diseases of the 

 grape and their treatment, need no further ex- 

 planation nor commendation to our grape grow- 

 ers. They shouid be carefully studied by every 

 one and its lessons perseveringly practiced ; but 

 after a few years the ills which we, old Viticul- 

 turists, had suffered, will be almost forgotten. 

 The following remarks may, therefore, be both 

 interesting as a historical record of these suffer- 

 ings, — laments of the past and hope= for the 

 future, — and may be useful as incentives to pei"se- 

 vere in the struggle against these diseases. 



In 1849 Longworth, of Cincinnati, O., wrote of 

 his old Vine dresser, father Ammen, that he 

 became disspirited, as the ?-o< blasted his hopes; 

 he got sick, refused to take medicine, saying 

 "what do I want to live for? M}^ grapes all 

 rotten." And in a communication of Longworth 

 to a committee on fruits, in 1848, he said : •' pre- 

 vious to the last six or eight years we had much 

 less of rot." Grape growing was almost aban- 

 doned around Cincinnati, where it first flourished, 

 and would have been deserted had its success 

 depended on the Catawba and Isabella alone, as 

 it did center for years on these two varieties. 

 The introduction of others, especially the Concord, 

 which was supposed to be entirely free from rot 

 and mildew, gave a new impetus to grape grow- 

 ing, and it promised again to become one of the 

 great industries of our country, a source of wealth 

 and enjoyment to its thousands of producers and 

 consumers. A few years experience has unfor- 

 tunately shown that the Concord, and in fact all 

 our grapes, with very few exceptions, perhaps, 

 are more or less subject to these diseases, and if 

 some varieties were to-day )^et exempt, we could 

 not have faith in their future freedom from these 

 diseases, which had increased in violence, des- 

 tructiveness and extent of territory to such a 

 degree as to justify almost de-pondence among 

 grape growers. 



In 1861 the late Dr. Engelmann, of St. Louis, 

 gave us the first scientific description of the two 

 species of fungi which infect our vineyards to so 

 large an extent, — but though '' the direct des- 

 truction of the fungus has been often attempted, 

 and by different means, especially by sulphur 

 sprinkling, it was without any marked effect. 

 In 187.5 the senior of our firm, Isidor Bush, corre- 

 sponded with the then U. S. Commissioner of 

 Agriculture (Hon. Wm. G. Le Due) asking for 

 the eai-nest investigation of this disease, through 

 men skilled in microscopy and chemistry and 

 aided by fruit-culturists ; the Commissioners prom- 

 ised " to grapple with this question, so as to dis- 

 cover as speedily as possible the cause of and 

 remedy for the rot." — In the Department of Agr. 

 Report for 1877 you can find an article by W"m. 

 McMurtree, chemist in chief; but after studying 

 that, you would know but little more about it than 

 that iDOth mildew and rot are fungous diseases 

 caused by atmospheric influences. We had to 

 look on and wonder, powerless— knowing 



"That the bright hopes of to-day 

 May be dispelled by next morn.".' 



but not knowing how to prevent or cure the pest. 

 The fact that there were some places exempt 

 from the disease, while others, — quite near by, — 

 had almost the entire ci'op of grapes destroyed, 

 gave rise to a number of theories, doctrines, 



speculations and suggestions, all of which proved 

 delusive, based on false presumptions. Young 

 vines planted on virgin soil, old vines, whether 

 richly manured or growing on poor land, were 

 attacked alike in some and uninjured in other 

 localities, and all claims for some certain modes 

 of training and pruning were unfounded. 



A paper on this subject, by Bush, lead before 

 the American Pomological Society in September, 

 1879, (pp. 41-48), was followed by Bateham of 

 Ohio, the editor of the Ohio Farmer, secretary 

 of the Ohio Pomological Society and State Board 

 of Agriculture, (died August 5, 1880); he said: 

 Referring to the essay that had just been read, 

 the results of his thirty years of observation ac- 

 corded in the main with those of his friend, Mr. 

 Bush. It is evident that the causes of grape rot 

 are atrnospheric, and not any disease or debility of 

 the vine, or defect of the soil, or error of cultiva- 

 tion. There are in Ohio, said Mr. Bateham, an 

 aggregate of about ten thousand acres of vine- 

 yard, and in his opinion the crops of one- third of 

 these on an average have been destroyed by the 

 rot, each season for five years past, and in conse- 

 quence of repeated failures not less than a thou- 

 sand vines per year have been grubbed up the 

 past five or six years. At the same time about 

 half as many acres of new vines have been plant- 

 ed annually on the lake shore and islands, which 

 have escaped the disease — so that grape-growing 

 seems likely hereafter to be confined to these 

 favored localities. 



But what should the poor vintners do who live 

 outside of these few blessed locations, exempt, we 

 hardly knew why nor for how long? All the aid 

 and advice we could give and have given in the 

 previous edition (1883) of this catalogue was, to 

 tell our grape-growers in a table, based on many 

 years' experience, which principal varieties are 

 generally less liable to mildew (peronosjjora); 

 and as this table may still be of some service,* 

 having proved correct and reliable ever since, we 

 reprint it : 



TABLE OF AMERICAN VINES (PRINCIPAL VARIETIES) WITH 

 REGARD TO THEIR RESISTANCE TO MILDEW (PeronOS- 



pora). 

 I. Category: almost entirely exempt, even in 

 unfavorable seasons and localities. 



uEstivalis, Northern Division: Cyuthiana, 

 Norton's Virginia. 



Labncsca: Concord, Hartford, Ives, Perkins; 

 also. Champion, Cottage, North Carolina, 

 Hentz, Venango. 



Biparia and its crosses with Labr. : Elvira, 

 Missouri Riesling, Monteflore, Noah, Tay- 

 lor. 



II. Category: suffering somewhat in exception- 

 ally unfavorable seasons and localities. 



^stivalia, Southern Division: Cunningham; 

 Northern Division: Hermann, Neosho. 



Labrnsca: Dracut Amber, Lady, Martha, N. 

 Muscadine, Telegraph, Mason's Seedling. 



Biparia and in its crosses with Labr. : Black 

 Pearl, Blue Dyer (Franklin), Clinton. 



Hybr., Labr. and Vinifera. Goethe. 



III. Category: suffering seriously in unfavorable 

 seasons, and not recommendable for locali- 

 ties usually exposed to mildew. 



Me 



■'Quelqes Observations sur le Mildew, par G. E. 

 issner," at the Congres International de Bordeaux. 



