92 THE GRAPE IN KANSAS. 



all others. Moore's Early is a splendid veariety, and would be second on my list. 

 Being of better quality, it commands two and one-half to five cents more per 

 ten-pound basket than does the Concord. Champion is good only because it is 

 early, but it must be marketed as soon as colored, for it has no good qualities to 

 recommend it, and when Moore's begin to go on the market there is no eale for 

 it. In addition, I might say that as soon as it is ripe it shrivels. Grapes for 

 local marketing are still sold in pick-split baskets, but there is a tendency to 

 adopt the eight- pound hard basket, because it can be shipped without repacking, 

 is more easily handled, and, in addition, it is about the size demanded for family 

 use. The result of this year's grape crop was very satisfactory in the eastern 

 portion of the state ; We had a good crop, with good prices. Concord, Moore's, 

 Worden, and Elvira, besides many other varieties, had a splendid showing of 

 fruit. Champion was remarkably full ; the second big crop we have ever had of 

 them. Woodruff, though only one year planted, had fruit sufficiently plentiful 

 to warrant planting more extensively. We had no grape rot in our immediate 

 neighborhood, although the crop in vineyards at a distance of two miles was 

 almost entirely destroyed. Good, compact bunches, and plenty of them, were 

 more in evidence than for at least three years previous. As to the planting of 

 fancy table grapes, it will not pay unless the grower can do his own marketing. 

 A few fancy grapes can be sold for good prices, but the old standbys are still the 

 money-makers. 



REPORT OF GRAPE GROWING IN 1900. 



Read before the Kansas State Horticultural Society, December 29, 1900, by A. H . BUCKMAN, 



of Topeka. 



The grape crop of 1900 in Shawnee county was medium. Prices in Topeka, 

 for seven- and eight-pound baskets, ran from nine to eighteen cents, commission 

 taken out ; commission men handle most of ours, saving time and trouble. We 

 realized two cents per pound for the whole crop. Grapes had peaches to con- 

 tend with this year. The three black varieties, Moore's Early, Worden, and 

 Concord, rule the market, although we had no trouble in selling Green Mountain 

 and Delaware at double prices, or half-size baskets at same price. Woodruff 

 Red and Moore's Diamond are good sellers, and will always find a market, grown 

 in any quantity. The present season has been no exception to the worst enemy 

 the grape grower has, and that is the man who pulls his grapes green, or as 

 soon as colored, and forces them upon the market before they are at their best. 

 The crop of 1900 ripened from six to eight days earlier than in 1899. 



Bush says miscalled rose-bug is a leaf-eater. This year it was more numer- 

 ous. This is the third year it has troubled us. It commences its work the last 

 of May and is gone by the last of July. A small vineyard near the house, where 

 the poultry runs, is apparently clear of this pest. Out of fifty or more kinds we 

 have experimented with or tested, Green Mountain, Moore's Early, Worden r 

 Moore's Diamond, Concord and Woodruff Red have paid the best, and, for late 

 home use, Goethe. 



We are more impressed than ever in favor of a black, deep, rich soil, with clay 

 subsoil, for grapes, where the land is so near level that the water will run off 

 without washing. This kind of land holds the foliage, and seems to resist dis- 

 eases of vine and roots better than loose, sloping land. Our oldest vines, thir- 

 teen years planted, have been the most profitable this year. We have been 

 disappointed in Campbell's Early and McPike ; Campbell's Early cannot com- 

 pete with Moore's Early, and McPike is an inferior Concord in size and quality. 



