PROCEEDINGS OF THE FAHMERS' CLUB. 227 



It seems to me that these hills of Hermann will become a fashionable 

 resort for the ladies and gentlemen of St. Louis, and other cities. Let 

 there be places of entertainment, where wine and pears and peaches and 

 apricots can be bought, and at points where views of the beautiful scenery 

 can be obtained, and a ride on horseback from the town will be delightful. 

 Nothing along the Rhine can excel it. On other rivers, in other States, 

 are locations equally good, some are as beautiful. So far as I saw, the 

 State of Missouri, as regards soil, is superior to that of any Eastern 

 State. Several leading men at Hermann told me it would be a great advan- 

 tage to them if enterprising Americans were to settle among them. 

 Improved farms, near the town, sell from $20 to $30 an acre. In various 

 parts of the county they can be bought from $5 to $10 an acre. There are 

 no vineyards on either. An acre in grapes ready to bear is valued at, and 

 sells for, $1,000. It is richly worth it. 



At St. Louis I found Mr. Coleman, editor of the Valley Farmer, busy in 

 propagating Norton's Virginia, as well as other sorts. In his nursery 

 grounds, five miles from the city, he showed me a great variety of grapes 

 which do well. He says that grapes grow well near the city, on old worn 

 outfields. The preparation is to plow twenty inches deep. For wine he 

 recommends Norton's Virginia ; for table grapes, first, Hartford Prolific ; 

 second, Concord; wdiich he would plant ten feet each way, train on trellis, 

 and cultivate by mulching. He speaks well, as did others, of Dr. Grant's 

 lona. He says the grapes growing there are far larger and sweeter than 

 when grown further north. Land adjoining him sells for $500 an acre. 



At Des Moines, Iowa, James Smith, long, largely, and successfully, has 

 propagated the Concord grape, and, so far as I know, has been most in- 

 strumental in giving it notoriety in the West. He has always raised good 

 vines, some of which, if permitted, would bear the first year. At various 

 places on the Mississippi, particularly at Warsaw and Quincey, grapes are 

 doing remarkably well. Much was attempted, some time ago, at Nauvoo, 

 by a French colony, Foreigners never have succeeded in this business in 

 our country, where they cling to European methods. The experiment of 

 the Swiss, at Vevay, Ind., was on a large scale, and a failure. Almost 

 everywhere on the Upper Mississippi, grapes are doing well. Various 

 parties have fine success in the Rock River Valley, in Northern Illinois, 

 near Wisconsin. Here all kinds of grapes are reported to succeed, and the 

 Delaware in particular. The soil approaches sand, with a deep subsoil of 

 shale or of gravel. It is known as hazel land. 



It is important to know what success attends grape growing on the prai- 

 ries, which occupy so large a portion of this State, a considerable of Indi- 

 ana, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas. This is a wide 

 region, and one must travel and observe much to be able definitely to make 

 a statement which will apply to the -svhole. There is reason to believe that 

 Illinois contains every variety of prairie, as well as of timber soil, common 

 to the region named. To tell how grapes do here will indicate how they 

 will do in similar sections. 



In the heart of the black-soil prairie region at Bloomington, grapes have 

 been thoroughly tried. Dr. Schroder has four acres; Mr. K. H. Fell an acre; 



