274 Vineyard Culture. 



effects upon our vines, by favoring the dreaded mildew^, vyhich 

 destroys the fruit and foliage of some of our favorite varieties. 

 For the purpose of avoiding this disaster, Mr. W. Saunders, 

 the intelligent manager of the propagating gardens at Wash- 

 ington, D. C, long ago suggested a plan for sheltering the 

 vine trellis.* It had often been noticed that vines vyhich 

 were trained against buildings, and sheltered by the wide pro- 

 jecting eaves of the roof, escaped the mildew and rot, when 

 all others suffered from this casualty. Mr. Saunders improved 

 upon this hint by capping his vine trellises with a couple of 

 boards, making a narrow roof above the vines. 



This shelter has been found abundantly satisfactory. Such 

 a covering must act favorably, by arresting, to a considerable 

 extent, the cooling by radiation, and may thus prevent the ef- 

 fects of a spring frost also ; but it is considered a certain pre- 

 ventive of the mildew. The observations and experiments 

 of Mr. Saunders have been verified by many others, in dif- 

 ferent parts of the country. 



The expense of this mode of protecting a vineyard is con- 

 siderable. At the usual distance between the rows, eight feet, 

 there will be five thousand eight hundred and thirty-two feet 

 of trellis per acre ; this will require two boards, of a foot 

 width, to make the roof, or eleven thousand six hundred and 

 sixty-four feet of lumber, which, in its thinnest, cheapest, and 

 least finished condition, at twenty dollars per thousand, must 

 cost two hundred and thirty-three dollars. Besides this, the 

 supports, nails, and labor of setting them up. 



An ingenious patent h^s been taken out by a man in Illi- 

 nois, for a movable protector, arranged with jointed posts in 

 the trellis, so that the whole apparatus can be let down in the 

 winter — posts, wires, vines, roof, and all — as a winter protec- 

 tion. Common use precludes any one from patenting Saun- 

 ders' plan, which he has given freely to the world, and its 



*See Patent Office Report for 1861 ; page 495. 



