COMMUNICATION FROM N. LONGWORTH.*""**~ '" 101 



S 



though I do not consider that the location, as to air, either 

 causes or prevents the rot. 



Most of my vineyards at Tusculum are on a high hill, and 

 on its sides, fully exposed to the sun and air, and facing east, 

 west, north, and south, with no tall trees in the vicinity. Yet in 

 all these vineyards the rot has prevailed, and this season two- 

 thirds of the crop was lost. The subsoil is a stiff clay ; and 

 to this I chiefly attribute the rot. Among my vines near the 

 foot of the hill, where the ground was more porous, there 

 was less rot ; and in the bottom, or near it, where the rain 

 immediately sank deep in the earth, there was no rot. And 

 this I have found to be the case at other vineyards. Where 

 the subsoil was a compact clay, the rot prevailed. Where 

 the subsoil was mixed with sand or gravel, or where it was 

 porous, there was no rot. 



I have for the past five years believed that the land in 

 Kentucky, on the opposite side of the Ohio, would be prefer- 

 able, for the grape culture, to our own. The soil on that side 

 of the river is in many situations sandy, and the rain passes 

 freely through it. The consequence is, they supply our mar- 

 ket with strawberries a week earlier than we can raise them 

 on our side of the river ; and most, if not all their vineyards, 

 are planted in soil of this character ; and I have heard of no 

 serious loss by the rot on the Kentucky side. On inquiry 

 of our intelligent Germans, I, find their experience coincides 

 with mine. In their vineyards, the rot injured them the least 

 where the ground was porous, or the water, from the decliv- 

 ity of the ground, passes off speedily; or if the subsoil was 

 a clay, and it was mixed with stone, which caused the water 

 to sink speedily. One of my vineyards at Tusculum suffered 

 but little from the rot, and this was on land where the sub- 

 soil was a stiff, damp clay, and near to the forest. The Ger- 

 man who cultivates it is a perfect "swoab," a very ignorant 

 man. He, however, was able to give the reason for his 

 escape from the rot. He " prepared his ground and planted 



