102 



THE ILLINOIS FAKMEli. 



April 



seen. Whether this is the result of the | 

 soil at Des Moines or the culture, we ! 

 cannot say ; perhaps part of both. Des \ 

 Moines is on the great limestone region ' 

 of Iowa, and it may be this gives such j 

 health to his vines. Vines grown at 

 Cincinnati are nowhere beside them in 

 value. 



Tlie hazel land spoken of is always 

 a lighter colored soil, and contains more 

 clay than the common black prairie soil. 

 It should always be selected for orchard 

 sites in preference, as it is always bet- 

 ter drained than most other prairie 

 lands. For the small grains this hazel 

 brush land is invaluable ; but for corn, 

 has no advantage over any other prai- 

 rie. In Northern Illinois considerable 

 of this land occurs, and becomes less 

 abundant as we approach the line of 

 39a 30'. 



Dr. Shroderprefers wine grapes, and 

 fir this use Norton's Virginia and 

 llerbeniont are his favorites. For the 

 tiil'lo and for market Hartford Prolific 

 and Concord please him, while the 

 Dclav/are has not given him satisfac- 

 tion. 



" Mr. Foil has 1,500 vines of the Concord and 

 ILirtfoid Prolific, and is preparing four acres by 

 plowing from 18 to 20 inches, when he will plant 

 onp-foarth Delaware, and the rest of the sorts 

 nbove nur.ied. Last year his Hartford's averaged 

 eight pounds to the vine ; a few bear as much as 

 20 pounds, and sold for 20 cents a pound. They 

 itre planted over a brick drain and grow on trellis. 

 Till- Catawba is very uncertain with him. Of the 

 LV'lawi'.re, he says thousands of roots are sold 

 which are worth nothing, owing to excessive pro- 

 pagation, Init knows good roots can be raised. 



Mr. Flioenix is largely interested in grapes. He 

 is a nurseryman, as intelligent and enterprising as 

 any of his class. He has neighboring con)petitors 

 not far bc^hind him. With from 50 to 200 men in 

 con.stant employ, 160 acres in apple trees, as well 

 as additional ground of other stock, he has need 

 of having his eyes open and his wits at work. And 

 ypt he is in doubt whether the Delaware, the best 

 i.f all our grapes, is going to be trustworthy. He 

 calls it his study night and day. He gave me his 

 experience ; it is candid, instructive, covers the 

 whole ground and ought to be his own answer. 



Everybody wanted Delawares. He had several 



vhousand. So soon as the vines made what was 



uiTieient growth, he ordered his men to layer them 



then, as they extended, and as laterals pushed out, 

 they were layered, and thus, through the whole 

 season, everything that could start a root was 

 smothered. Tiie best of those were sold — that 

 some were fair roots I know, for they grew with 

 me from three to four feet last year — the rest were 

 set out the next season, but did not grow very 

 well, and in the winter great numbers of them died. 

 This process, with the same results, went on seve- 

 ral years. Last summer he made a visit to the 

 vineyards on the Hudson; and in particular to that 

 of Mr. Mace, at Newburg. Here he was struck 

 with the sight of the Delawares. The ground was 

 clear, the vines were trained to stakes, even the 

 tendrils were pinched oif, they looked stocky and 

 fruit was abundant. Immediately he wrote home 

 to have his own vines tended in the same manner ; 

 when he returned he had been obeyed only in part 

 — he saw to having it done, but the season had 

 advanced and he must wait another year, or till 

 the vines can recover. A great many nurserymen 

 have had, I doubt not, the same experience. The 

 vines they have sent out have proved very unsat- 

 isfactory ; and it seems this is to be said of the 

 Delaware, and so long as this constant smothering 

 as well as raising roots from eyes of this same 

 wood, goes on, nothing good can come of the vines 

 so propagated. The simple requirement is this, 

 the stock from which new roots aie to grow must 

 be frotn fidly ripened ivood. 



In the yard of Mr. Green Miller, in the suburbs 

 of Bloomiiigtou, I was shown the vines of the 

 Hartford Prolific, a grape not of first quality by 

 any means, but it is eailiest of all, or none are ear- 

 lier. The account of these vines ought to set peo- 

 ple thinking. They were obtained from Mr. Phoe- 

 nix four years ago last spring. They were planted 

 to cover an arbor ten feet wide and thirty feet long. 

 Two or three other vines were planted with them. 

 Mr. Miller told me he dug holes about two feet 

 square, put in bones, old shoes and such stuff, and 

 covered without much care. In the fall he put 

 two busliels of stable manure as mulching ;iround 

 the roots of ciich vine ; in the spring he takes it 

 off and spreads it on his garden. Last year and 

 previously he pruned them, according to his limi- 

 ted knowledge, but a German vine-dresser said he 

 would have no grapes because he pruned wrong. 

 Thii i* the fom-th yeitr, they bore a full crop. I 

 visited Mr. Miller in his store and got his account. 

 He seemed a very candid man, and I can imagine 

 no reason why his statement is not trustworthy. 

 Besides, I had a similar one of tliese grapes from 

 the neighbors. He said that they had all they 

 wanted to eat and to make into preserves ; that 

 they gave some away and that his wife sold some ; 

 in short, that from these three vines there must 

 have been five or six bushels. On my expressing 

 surprise he said he counted the bunches on one 

 vine, just for curiosity, iind there were four hun- 

 dred and twenty, and, it would seem that if they 

 had been sold at the market price they would have 

 brought more than fifty dollars. 



M. L. Dunlap, at Champaign, fifty miles east of 

 Bloomington, is also preparing to plant grapes 

 largely. Li.st summer I saw his vines ; they were 

 treated in true nursery fashion, the laterals mak- 

 ing roots and the rest of the vine lying about in a 

 way that would distract a vine-dresser. And yet, 

 notwithstanding this treatment, almost every vari- 

 ety of sufficient age was loaded with fruit, and no 





