MILDEW ON THE VINE. 



65 



house was the only one on the place where sulphur was 

 used till after the grapes were set some time, and the 

 only one where they had rust on them. This year 

 (1862) I applied no sulphur to the pipes till the grapes 

 were stoning, and they are perfectly free from rust; 

 and as they have been treated in every other respect 

 exactly the same as formerly, I have satisfied my own 

 mind that sulphur, applied to hot pipes in a house 

 where vines are in bloom, is sure to cause rust on the 

 berries, especially in the case of such tender-skinned 

 grapes as black Hamburgs.''" 



MILDEW ON THE VINE. 



Mildew, when it attacks the vine, is a most insidious 

 and destructive disease. Its ravages in the vineyards 

 of the Continent have been of the most serious char- 

 acter, involving the ruin of thousands ; and in our own 

 country, some twelve or fourteen years ago, hundreds of 

 vineries had their crops destroyed by it. In Middlesex, 

 where I then lived, this disease was almost universal, 

 but I never had it except on one vine, and this one 

 grew in the cold end of a fighouse, where it was shaded 

 a good deal by trees. This house had but little heat 

 applied to it by artificial means, and was the only one 

 of seven houses in which we had vines, where their 

 treatment and the situation of the house were such as 

 to favour, according to my views, the development of 

 the spores of the vine mildew. The house was in a 

 damp, shady situation. The vines were never forced, 

 but allowed to come on with the heat of the sun ; and 

 the season when the disease made its appearance was 



* Further experience confirms the opinion expressed in this chapter about 

 sulphur being the fertile source of rust. 



