GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 17 



our State have been engaged in the cultivation of the grape 

 during the last twelve or fourteen years. Their success has 

 been fully equal to their expectations, and they are full of high 

 hopes of the most useful and profitable results, even of entire 

 and permanent success. Their experience in cultivating the 

 vine has led them to the same conclusion that we have deduced 

 from our scientific examinations of the soil, climate and native 

 vines, viz : that the vine can be cultivated with entire success 

 in favorable localities in all parts of the State. 



It should be borne in mind that these results have been 

 derived mostly from vineyards in the valleys of the Missouri 

 and Mississippi rivers, which are not, by far, the most favorable 

 localities in the State; for the "mildew" and the "rot," the 

 most formidable obstacles they have had to contend with, may 

 be partially or entirely obviated in localities where the atmos- 

 phere and soil are not so densely charged with moisture. 



" The rot," says one of our most successful vine-dressers, 

 Mr. Haas, " attacks the berries when the soil is in a wet condi- 

 tion in July and August." "It is most severe on the low and 

 wet parts of the vineyard." 



Mr. Husmann says : " The principal cause, all are agreed, 

 is an excess of moisture about the roots, and damp, moist 

 weather." 



Now the larger part of our vineyards are located upon a 

 stiff, cold, clayey subsoil, which, of necessity, retains the excess 

 of moisture, and produces the injurious results.* This evil 

 may be obviated by thorough draining, or, what is better, by 

 selecting some of the millions of acres in the southern part of 

 the State, where the soil is warmer and lighter and richer in 

 the ingredients most favorable to the vine, and where the sub- 

 soil is so porous as to permit a free passage to the excess of 

 moisture. 



The mildew appears in June, and all agree that it is caused 

 by "foggy, damp and hot weather after rains." Now our 

 observations prove that hot damp weather, accompanied by 

 mists, is much more prevalent in the valleys of the Missouri 

 and the Mississippi than on the table lands to the south. 



The characters of the two regions under comparison, show 



*See Soil No. 12, page 10. 



