18 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



hot sweltering suns. It strikes, something like the rust in 

 wheat, suddenly, and with the same disastrous effect to tlie 

 crop. Various modes of prevention have been recommended, 

 but none yet tried have proved effectual. 



The cause is supposed to be an excess of water about the 

 roots of the vine, in any clay subsoil retentive of moisture; 

 sandy soils with a gravelly substratum, are generally exempt 

 from this disease. 



The opinions of Mr. Elliott, Mr. Longworth, and the 

 Fruit Committee of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, on 

 this subject, are quoted. 



Mr. Elliott, in the Horticulturist, Vol. 2, p. 314, says: 

 ** The rot for the past three years has followed excessive rains 

 in July and August. Dr. Flagg, two years since, found a 

 small part of a vineyard where the rot was very slight ; (an 

 experiment made by the writer of this Treatise), this had not 

 been worked after the spring, and the ground was in such a 

 state, that most of the rains passed off on the surface. Vines 

 planted in rows eight feet apart, in one instance, were found 

 not to be affected with rot, but very slightly. . . . The 

 subject has been but little investigated, and therefore all can 

 speculate." 



In the same article, page 319, Mr. Longworth says : *'It 

 is of late years only, that the rot has been so destructive 

 among our grapes ; one thing is certain, if we had little or no 

 rain after the grapes are fairly forward, we should see but 

 little of the rot ; certain it is, it is continued rains, followed by 

 a hot sun, that causes us to look out for the appearance of 

 the rot." 



In the able report of Dr. Mosher, Mr. Ernst, and Mr. 

 KiDD, the Fruit Committee of the Society for 1848, it is re- 

 marked : " Some vineyards were injured by the wet weather 

 in July, causing the grapes to rot and fall off : this, however, 

 seems to have been confined to situations where the air had 

 not a free circulation, allowing fogs and vapors to remain too 



