On the Rust in Grapes. 449 



Art. XIV. On the Rust in Grapes. By Aliquis. 



I HAVE just been tying down the yoang shoots of some vines, and, while 

 doing so, I began to think on the variety of opinions existing with respect 

 to rust on grapes; some referring the cause to one thing and some to another. 



After what has been said on the subject by far more able men than myself, it 

 will, perhaps, be thought presumption in me to say anything at all about it ; 

 but, with your leave, I'll just tell you, and those who hke to read it, what I 

 know about it. I do not pretend to say that I could cure it at all times ; but 

 this I know, that whereas it was once a common thing with me, now I never 

 see it. As it is possible some one may be situated as I was at the time I used 

 to have rust in abundance, I will proceed to state how I imagine I got rid of it. 



About twenty years ago I entered upon the situation I still hold. The 

 vines, I should suppose, were full twenty years old then. They appeared to 

 have been planted with very little preparation, in a very indifferent soil, with 

 plantations of trees and shrubs within fifteen yards of the house, and so situ- 

 ated as to render it almost, if not altogether, impossible to improve the border, 

 so that I had little chance of doing them any good, if the evil existed in the 

 border, as I then thought it did, and as others think now. Since that period, 

 however, I have come to the conclusion that internal management has quite 

 as much to do with it as the soil in which they grow. My first attempt inside 

 the house was to remove the flues, from going almost close to the wall, to 

 about 2 ft. from it, in order that the vines should not be burnt at the bottom 

 of the stems, where they entered the house, while they were cold at the top. 

 I then had the wall cut down where the stems had been led up through to 

 reach the rafters, in doing which I discovered that only a small hole up the 

 centre of the wall had been left when the vines were young, and that, in some 

 instances, they had so completely filled it, that the little rough bits of mortar 

 had got embedded in the vines, in such a way as to make one wonder how they 

 lived at all, rather than that they did no better. To remedy this, I had the 

 wall cut clean through from bottom to top, leaving an opening of about 4 in. 

 wide for the vines. I then had the outside built up with very thin bricks, 

 in cement, from the border to the plate on which the front sashes slide, a 

 heiglit of about 2 ft., the inside being left quite open. By this means you 

 will readily see that, instead of the vines being squeezed in the dry brick- 

 work, they were left free to enjoy the moist atmosphere of the house, which 

 moisture is caused by damping the flues and constructing the tops of them so 

 that they will hold water from twelve to twenty-four hours, according to the 

 degree of heat required ; a precaution quite necessary with those who, like 

 myself, are obliged to put up with the old-fashioned brick flues, though, by 

 the by, if they are well constructed and properly managed, they are not so 

 far inferior to hot-water pipes as some people would have us believe. Having 

 arranged matters to my satisfaction, so as to be able to keep up the required 

 degree of heat, which you will remember must at that time be done to a great 

 nicety, as it would have been but little use then to have talked of trying from 

 10° to 20° less heat at night than what was required by day (for that woidd 

 have been thought quite sufficient to destroy almost every thing in the house), I 

 used all my endeavours to produce a good crop of grapes, and in this I suc- 

 ceeded, and was much pleased with tliem, till, after having thinned them, I 

 perceived something brown upon them, which was chiefly confined to the 

 Black Hamburgs. Up to this time I do not recollect ever having seen or 

 heard of rust ; for T dare say you recollect that at that time horticul- 

 tural knowledge did not travel at the railroad pace it has done since your 

 Magazine and the weekly gardening papers have been published, conveying 

 misfortunes and remedies from one end of the country to the other in a 

 few hours. What was the cause, or what the remedy to remove it, T was 

 quite ignorant of; but from the circumstance of only some bunches being so, 

 while others were free from it, I could hot come to the conclusion that it was 

 in the soil. I was, however, obliged to let it remain, with the hope that at 



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