?5^^^?s?;'!??!r?'''^'5r7v?'w^ 



THE ILLINQIS FABMEE. 



63 



HQETICULTURAL. 



Remedy for Bet in Grapes. 



uAt a recent meeting of the American 



Wine Growers' Association, in Cincinnati, 

 the following communication was read from 

 Mr. Werk, on the subject of Grape Rot: 



Allow me to explain to you the trials I 

 have made in this country, in the cultiva- 

 tion of the grape, during the last eleven 

 years, and my intentions for the future in re- 

 gard to the rot. It is a remarkable fact 

 that vines never fail, in this country, in their 

 flowering period; at least, I never have wit- 

 nessed it. They hang as full of grapes as 

 they can, every year. The favorable flower- 

 ing of the vines, in the greatest part of the 

 old country, generally is the barometer of 

 an abundant crop, and if the flowering of 

 the vines is a failure, the crop, of coui*se, is 

 a failure ; the enemy there and the rot here. 

 The quality there depends alone on the dry, 

 warm summer, to bring the grapes to ma- 

 turity, which is never the case here, (if the 

 vines are not overladen with fruit,) this rot 

 is the only main destroyer of our grapes. 



Professor Liebig in his complete book of 

 Chemistry, speaks of the observations of 

 Dr. Halez on the blight in hops and other 

 plants (pages 39, 40,) who states that the 

 development of the growth of plants de- 

 pends on the supply of nourishment and 

 moisture from the soil, which is determined 

 by a certain temperature and dryness of the 

 atmosphere. The absorbent power of 

 plants, the motion of their sap, depends on 

 evaporation; the amount of food necessary 

 for the nutrition which is absorbed, is pro- 

 portional to the amount of moisture given 

 out (evaporation) in a given time. When 

 the plant has taken up a maximom of mois- 

 ture, and the evaporation is suppressed by 

 low temperature or by continued wet 

 weather, the supply of food, the nutrition of 

 plant, ceases, the juices stagnate and are al- 

 tered. They now pass into a state in 

 which they become a fertile soil for micro- 

 scopic plants. When rain falls after hot 

 weather, and is followed by great heat 

 without wind, so that every part of the 

 plant is surrounded by an atmosphere satu- 

 rated with moisture, the cooling due to far- 

 ther evaporation ceases, and the plants are 

 destroyed by "fire blast" or scorching 

 (sonaer brand,) "sun burnt or sun blight." 



Kow, if these remarks are well founded, 

 and I do believe they are, then we will be 

 nearer to our point of preventing oar grapes 

 from rotting, in avoidhig too rapid growth 



in the forepart of the season. We have 

 been cultivating our vineyards in the same 

 manner as they do in the greatest portion 

 of the vine countries of Europe. We hoe 

 and dig them three or four times at least 

 twice in a season, and by so much cultiva- 

 tion in such rich and fertile soil and climate, 

 we urge the vines in their growth, keep the 

 soil moist, and procure for the plant too 

 much nourishment at once, by retaining the 

 moisture in the soil, call forward in the 

 loose*cultivated soil, the influence of the at- 

 mosphere, and in this way have our plants 

 fairly prepared f«r the approach of our 

 enemy, with which we are all very well ac- 

 quainted; cold, fog and warm moist atmos- 

 phere; so that by the appearance of one or 

 the other of these enemies, our grapes rot, 

 and often from one-half to three-fourths are 

 gone in twenty -four hours. As the supera- 

 bundance of moisture is taken up and the 

 evaporation suppressed, it ot course leaves 

 the enemy a greater chance for his ravages. 

 This is not the case so much in the greatest 

 portion of the vine countries of Europe, as 

 the soil and climate is not so rich and fer- 

 tile as here, and of course frequent hoeing 

 and higher culture is necessary to obtain 

 from the soil the substance by provoking 

 the influence of atmospheres to the soil. 



The largest portion of us vine growers 

 have often noticed that about the time the 

 rot appears, vine plants of a yellowish pale 

 color alongside of other vines with a dark 

 green healthy color, both fruit and leaves 

 remain healthy and sound, whist the dark 

 green and healthy-colored fruit are partly 

 destroyed, and the leaves have lost their 

 healthy appearance after the attack of the 

 enemies, cold and fog, or a warm moist at- 

 mosphere. The cause of this is admirably 

 explained in the remarks of Dr. Halez in his 

 observations on plants in general. I dug 

 down to the tooU< of many pale and also 

 dark green colored vines, after the rot had 

 made its appearance, and without exception, 

 I found the pale colored in a harder soil and 

 generally on places where the water could 

 run off easily; the reverse was the ease in 

 the dark green colored plants. 



Eleven years ago I planted my first vine- 

 yard in this country, in a timothy field of 

 eleven acres. I had learned the cause of 

 the rot from other experienced wine grow- 

 ers, they remarking that the fog and the 

 wet summers were the cause of the rot, and 

 this led me to think that if the plants were 

 far apart and the soil covered with other 

 vegetations, the fog and the wet summers 

 would not have the same effect, as the soil 



:■ — 



