ing. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Diseases. 47" 



ages and secures an abundance of such shoots. 

 By this general principle all new systems, so 

 called, should be proved, and beginners in 

 grape culture may be able to guard against 

 receiving false impressions with reference to 

 any mode which may fall under their observa- 

 tion ; and this caution is the more necessary as 

 young vines will bear good crops for a few 

 years, even under very indifferent treatment. 

 In all sytems of training which involve the 

 retention of wood beyond five or six years, as 

 in the case of spur pruning, and the methods 

 with permanent horizontal branches, it is ab- 

 solutely essential to remove the older wood at 

 certain periods, and replace it With younger 

 wood from near the base of the plant. Fixed 

 rules can hardly be given for an operation 

 which requires so much thought and such 

 close acquaintance with the growth and bear- 

 ing habits of the different varieties. 



If you desire to train your vines for arbors or 

 on walls, set an extra strong young plant, in 

 rich, well-prepared soil ; leave but one shoot to 

 grow during the first summer, arid if necessary 

 even during the second, so that it may get very 

 strong. Cut back to three eyes in fall, these will 

 each throw out a strong shoot, which should L/e 

 tied to the arbor they are designed to cover, 

 and allowed to grow unchecked. These three 

 canes wilJ be cut back in the fall following, to 

 three buds each, which will give us three prin- 

 cipal branches, each producing canes the third 

 or fourth season ; of each of these branches, cut 

 next fall one cane to two eyes, and the others 

 to six or more buds, according to the strength 

 of the vine, then gradually increase the num- 

 ber of branches and cut back more severely 

 those which fruited. In this manner a vine 

 can be made in the course of time to coyer a 

 large space, produce a large quantity of fruit, 

 and get very old. 



Those who desire further information and 

 directions on various modes of pruning and 

 training, or on the culture of grape vines in 

 glass houses, we refer to Ohorlton's Grape 

 Growers' Guide; Fuller's Grape Culturist; 

 Hoare's Cultivation of the Grape-vine on open 

 Walls, and other books o,n Grape Culture, 

 especially to an article on Pruning and Train- 

 ing the Grape-vine, by Wm. Saunders, U. 8. 

 Department of Agriculture. .Report, 1806. 



DISEASES OF THE GRAPE-VINE. 



The vine, with all its vigor and longevity, is no less 

 subject to diseases than all other organic bodies, and 

 as we cannot remove most of their causes, and can 

 even with the best care prevent and cure but few, our 

 first attention must be given to the selection of healthy 

 plants and hardy varieties. You have already been 

 warned against planting the Grape-vine in heavy, wet 

 soil, where water stagnates, or in places exposed to 

 early and late frosts. You have been impressed with 

 the necessity of clean cultivation, stirring the soil,* of 

 proper training, and "of thinning the fruit. If you dis- 

 regard these points, even the healthiest and most vig- 

 orous varieties of vines will become diseased. 



But some of the diseases infesting our American 

 grapes do not result from defects in the soil or want of 

 cultivation ; their causes are in fact unknown, except 

 that they are produced by fungi microscopic para- 

 sitical plants, producing mildew, etc., of which there 

 exist a great many different kinds, and about 

 which our knowledge is as yet very deficient. We do 

 know, however, alas, too well, that these diseases 

 exist, are promoted by atmospheric influences un- 

 favorable state of the weather and seem as much 

 beyond our control as the weather itself. The most 

 formidable of these diseases, most prevailing in this 

 country, and most disastrous to American grape cul- 

 ture, are, THE MILDEW (Peronospora viticola) and THE. 

 ROT or BLACK ROT (Phoma uvicola). 



[The first scientific description and proper distinc- 

 tion of the two kinds we find in the Transactions of the 

 Academy of Science of St. Louis, 1861, by Dr. Geo. 

 Engelmann (Vol. 2, p. 165). See also Am. Pomological 

 Society, Session 1879. p. 41-48.] 



Just before going to press we are favored by DR. 

 GEO. ENGELMANN, with the following article on this 

 most important subject : 



THE DISEASES OF GRAPE-VINES 



are principally occasioned by animal or vegetable 

 parasites. I leave others, who are more conversant 

 with the subject, to treat of the former, and will mere- 

 ly state here that our species have all grown up with 

 the Phylloxera, and would long ago have been extin- 

 guished, or rather never could have lived, if that insect 

 had siicli power over them ; but they as well as the 

 insect live on, the latter having no other nourishment 

 than the grape-vines and their roots : you may call it 

 an accommodation between them. 



More important for us in America are the fungus- 

 diseases, which do our grape crops more harm than the 

 Phylloxera. It is said that in Europe they have dis- 



* We are awarn of the fact that in certain seasons and 

 peculiar soils neglected vineyards, tilled with grass and 

 weeds, have escaped diseases and borne full crops, while 

 well hoed and cultivated vineyards suffered severely, 

 especially from rot; but the rule, nevertheless, holds 

 good in general. After a season of severe drouth, for 

 instance, fall plowing may cause the evaporation ot the 

 scanty remaining moisture in the loosened soil and ren- 

 der the exhausted roots a prey to severe frosts, while 

 the unplo wed, baked surl'uce would serve .is a protection 

 against both. Such exceptions have misled some grape- 

 growers to advocate non-cultivation, or even grass- 

 sowing, i:\ their vineyards; but after a few years a 

 stunted growth and unproductiveness of their vines was- 

 the result. 



