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HAND-BOOK 
 
 is 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SULPHUR-CURE, 
 
 AS APPLICABLE TO THE 
 
 VINE DISEASE IN AMERICA, 
 
 AND DISEASES OF 
 
 APPLE AND OTHER FRUIT TREES. 
 
 &. 
 
 By WILLIAM J. FLAGG, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THREE SEASONS IN EUROPEAN VINEYARDS. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 l8.7 0. 
 I 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 AT the request of many vine-growers* who had 
 become acquainted with my completely suc- 
 cessful treatment of "mildew" by the sulphur-cure 
 as learned in Europe, I undertook to set down a few 
 brief precepts and rules for the guidance of such 
 persons as might be disposed to follow my example. 
 The work has grown into something like a treatise, 
 and become much larger than I at first proposed 
 to make it ; and yet a good deal is omitted that 
 might, perhaps, profitably be included, because I 
 have thought it prudent to wait and observe for 
 one or two seasons more, and also collect the obser- 
 vations and opinions of others, whose co-operation I 
 now solicit, before attempting to write a work that 
 shall cover the whole ground. And I here give no- 
 tice that I write as a learner rather than a teacher, 
 and reserve the right to confess my errors as often as 
 I shall become aware of them. 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 Thus premising, I venture to affirm that the need 
 for this little work is most urgent. So far as I have, 
 with diligent inquiry, been able to learn, the meth- 
 ods for sulphuring diseased vines at present known 
 to the grape-growers of America (except only as em- 
 bodied in my lately published work on European 
 Yineyards) are wholly insufficient, and can, in our cli- 
 mate, lead to nothing but failure and discourage- 
 ment. The reasons for this will be developed in the 
 pages which follow. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introductory. — The Disease at length believed in. — Not so the Rem- 
 edy Page 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Oi'dium; the Science of it. — History and Description of it. — Its 
 Effect on different Parts of the Vine. — Its fundamental Character- 
 istics. — Erysephe the true Name 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Mildew. — Doubts of its Identity with the O'idium. — Supposed 
 Points of Difference. — The Erysephe of the Vine known in Amer- 
 ica before heard of in Europe. — Points of Resemblance. — Gray 
 Rot.— Calf's Eye.— Black Rot 17 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Description of the Black Rot. — Its Effects. — Conditions which pre- 
 dispose to it. — Causes which bring it on. — "Well known in Europe. 
 — Also in Ancient Greece. — Consequences of confounding it with 
 Rottenness from Mildew. — The Fungus that accompanies it a Con- 
 sequence, and not a Cause. — Drainage and Ventilation its only 
 Cure 24 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Reasons why the Sulphur-cure is not practiced in America. — Appa- 
 rent and real Failures of Experiments accounted for. — Improper 
 Tools and Material. — Ignorance of Rules. — Delusive Hopes in new 
 Varieties and new Soils 32 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Effects of Sulphur on Foliage in certain Cases. — Destruction of In- 
 sects. — A Precaution suggested 40 
 
vi Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Effects of Sulphur on the Wine. — Bad Taste from it, how corrected. — 
 Good Effects Page 45 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Different Preparations and Mixtures of Sulphur. — Plour of Sulphur. 
 — Ground Sulphur. — Mode of testing their Quality. — Hobson's 
 Choice in home-made Sulphurs. — To detect the Elour from the 
 Ground. — Various Mixtures with other Substances. — Experiments 
 with such Mixtures in France, and Report of Results. — Nineteen 
 Ways to cure O'idium 48 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Implements proper to use. — The Vergnes Bellows. — Canvas Bag. — 
 Dredge-box — with a Tuft. — Little Brush. — Faults of other Bellows 
 than the Vergnes 61 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Weather suitable for Sulphuring. — Proper Temperature. — Effect of 
 Rains 67 
 
 CHAPTER XI. . 
 How to conduct the Work.— Handling the Bellows and Dredge-box. 
 — Test of good Work. — Proper Charge for a Bellows. — Equipment 
 of Workmen 69 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Of the proper Times for Sulphuring. — How to recognize the Presence 
 of Mildew. — How to know of its Approach. — Signal Vines, and 
 where to look for them. — The Four Rules. — The Three Periods. — 
 First Period. — Second. — Third. — Mildew-proof Foliage of Amer- 
 ican Vines. — Sulphuring only the Fruit in certain Cases. — Partial 
 Sulphuring 73 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Miscellaneous. — Cost of Sulphuring. — Cultivation. — Drainage. — 
 Vines peculiarly susceptible to Disease. — The Norton's Virginia 
 Seedling. — Sulphuring Apple and other Fruit Trees 88 
 
HAND-BOOK 
 
 OP 
 
 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 TN my volume entitled " Three Seasons in Euro- 
 -*- pean Yineyards," published in the spring of 1869, 
 I strove to arouse my fellow-grape-growers to a sense 
 of their danger from the spread of the vine disease, 
 and to encourage them to adopt the remedy which 
 had proved so efficacious in other countries, and try 
 it, as I myself was resolved to try it, thoroughly, faith- 
 fully, hopefully. But my words had little effect. 
 
 Since then, events have come to my aid. A season 
 of pestilence far more fatal than ever known before 
 has dispelled those illusions of safety so fondly cher- 
 ished, and blighted all those fanciful, various, and oft- 
 en conflicting theories invented to prove that certain 
 soils or situations, or certain new varieties of vine, 
 must forever remain safe and invulnerable. 
 
8 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 He who would persuade a sick man to take medi- 
 cine finds he has gained an important point when the 
 patient is induced to admit that he really is ill. I 
 think that to-day there are few who will deny there 
 are sick vines — very sick ones — on the hills of the 
 Ohio, on the bluffs of the Missouri, on the shores and 
 islands of the Lake — sick Concords, disordered Dela- 
 wares, suffering Ives's, diseased Gortons, and dead Ca- 
 tawbas. 
 
 But how shall I go about it to establish the next 
 point, namely, that there is a remedy at hand perfect- 
 ly efficient to arrest the plague, and turn back our 
 afflicted industry from the very gates of death ? 
 
 I can point to the fact that, the disease being a 
 fungus, sulphur is scientifically known to destroy all 
 kinds of fungi. I can refer to numerous instances, 
 well known and often published, wherein the same 
 disease, appearing in greenhouses, has been unfail- 
 ingly cured by means of sulphur sprinkled on the hot 
 pipes. I can relate how, during that same sickly 
 season of 1869, 1 treated with sulphur my own vine- 
 yard of twelve year old Catawbas, in that doomed dis- 
 trict, the Ohio Valley, and which had for the four 
 preceding years been ravaged by the pest, and how I 
 succeeded completely, as I knew I should, after what 
 I had learned in Europe. Or I might cite other cases, 
 
Introductory. 9 
 
 where, though success was somewhat less complete, 
 yet sufficient was obtained to prove that sulphur has 
 a marked specific power over the disease. But these 
 cases, even if admitted and believed, are unfortunate- 
 ly met by others in which the same remedy has been 
 tried and failed — that is to say, sulphur has been 
 sprinkled, and yet the grapes have decayed. 
 
 I might appeal to the experience of European coun- 
 tries, where, during fourteen years, the sulphur-cure 
 has been their sole and yet sufficient reliance against 
 the terrible oidium, which, during the three or four 
 years of its first irruption, swept every thing before 
 it ; but men will not easily believe in facts that are 
 remote, and are averse to stretch their belief across 
 an ocean. I am myself an example, for it was not 
 until I had traveled through those countries that I 
 really comprehended and believed what I had, nev- 
 ertheless, often enough, through books, journals, and 
 word of mouth, been credibly informed was true. 
 And even there — even in France, before the panic- 
 stricken cultivators could be induced to try the sim- 
 ple remedy, Mares, De la Vergne, and others were 
 obliged to conduct experiments on a large scale, and 
 through a series 'of years, in many different districts, 
 under governmental auspices; and the latter had to 
 publish, besides numerous articles in the journals, as 
 A2 
 
10 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 many as thirteen separate pamphlet treatises, and, 
 furthermore, to go about from commune to com- 
 mune, and from one department to another, deliver- 
 ing lectures and holding discussions. 
 
 Wherefore, and aware of the difficulties of the situ- 
 ation, in now asking for a new hearing and a better 
 heeding, I invoke the aid of all willing vine-dressers, 
 and the prayers of all good Christians. 
 
The Oidium. 
 
 11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE OIDIUM. 
 
 rpHE vine disease, as they know it in Europe, is a 
 -*- little mushroom, a vegetable parasite, which fast- 
 ens to and grows upon the surfaces of the different 
 parts of the grape-vine. It is scientifically termed 
 "Erysephe" more properly than " 0'idium" and is 
 classified as a cryptogam of the family of Mucedines. 
 To the naked eye it appears only as a fine whitish 
 dust, covering portions of the leaves, buds, stalks, 
 fruit, or fruit-stems. Its existence was first discov- 
 ered in the year 1845 on the vines of a greenhouse 
 in Margate, England, whence it soon found its way 
 across the Channel into France, and thence spread rap- 
 
12 The Sulphur-Cuke. 
 
 idly over all Europe, carrying swift destruction wher- 
 ever it went, and exciting the utmost dismay. In the 
 Memoir of Mr. Mares it is described as follows : 
 
 " The essential characteristics of the disease of the 
 vine are every where the same, whether observed at 
 Margate, where it first appeared, or at Madeira, or in 
 the South of France. At the same time, the appear- 
 ance, the exterior aspect of the diseased vine, its "fa- 
 des," in a word, vary with the variety of vine attack- 
 ed, its force, its development ; it varies also accord- 
 ing as the attack is recent or remote — the case one 
 of a few days' standing, or one several weeks old. 
 Finally, the disease affects certain particular forms, 
 which seem to change its nature (the red-leaf or 
 rougeau, for instance), and which give it a special 
 malignity. It is all these causes united which have, 
 without doubt, called forth so many different hypoth- 
 eses relating to this disease. 
 
 " If, in summer-time, we examine a vine that has 
 been some few days diseased, we shall find it to have 
 a languishing aspect. The color of its foliage has 
 lost its liveliness and shine, and turned to a livid yel- 
 low. The green parts (the product of the year) are 
 covered here and there, over all their surface, with a 
 sort of whitish dust, but slightly adhesive, from which 
 continually exhales a musty odor sui generis. This 
 
The Oidiui. 13 
 
 dust is, in fact, a species of mould. It is formed by 
 the different parts of a little cryptogam parasite of 
 the family of Mucedines. This it is that has been 
 named by Mr. Berkley O'idiwn Tucheri. 
 
 " In measure as the divers characteristics just men- 
 tioned are developed, the vine appears attacked with 
 a species of leprosy, which devours at the same time 
 its stalks, leaves, and fruit. The old wood and the 
 roots are not the seat of any alteration. 
 
 " The light patches of white dust with which the 
 young shoots are covered, take, at the end of a few 
 days, a gray color ; they form, in the places they oc- 
 cupy, brown spots [De la Yergne, another writer, de- 
 scribes them as brown, black, or violet], which remain 
 separate or run together, according to their nearness 
 or to the persistence of the malady. 
 
 " This effect shows itself over the whole circumfer- 
 ence of the shoot, but is more marked and more 
 quickly produced on the upper side, where it is the 
 most exposed to the sun's rays. These shoots grow 
 but little. From the axils of their leaves issue nu- 
 merous secondary branches of a particularly sickly 
 aspect. This abnormal growth of stalk is a charac- 
 teristic trait, and indicates a profound disturbance in 
 the vegetation of the vine. It is local — that is to say, 
 it will only be observed on those shoots that have 
 
14 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 been invaded by the white dust, and later by the 
 brown spots. 
 
 " The youngest leaves at the ends of the branches 
 are generally crisped ; they curl more or less, the un- 
 der side within. Their upper sides are sprinkled with 
 light white dust, in patches more or less irregular ; it 
 is the same with their under sides ; it is always these 
 which are the first and the most seriously attacked. 
 When the leaf is covered with down, the cryptogamic 
 vegetation forms on it a peculiar sort of felt easily 
 recognizable. When the disease reappears on a vine 
 (that has been attacked before), the first symptoms 
 commence, almost always, by manifesting themselves 
 on the under side of the young leaves by these patch- 
 es of felt. The leaf -stem becomes covered with black 
 spots,* like the stalk of the shoot from which it grows. 
 The grapes attacked by the disease become likewise 
 covered with white dust, but much more abundantly 
 than the shoots and leaves ; sometimes they are com- 
 pletely covered, sometimes invaded only here and 
 there, on a single grain in a bunch, or even a portion 
 of a grain. The more recent the disease, the more 
 white the dust remains, and the more " greasy" to the 
 
 * Before described as brown. I suppose that, as is true of spots 
 produced by the vine-disease in this country, these are black to the 
 naked eye, but brown when magnified. 
 
The O'idium. 15 
 
 touch ; if it is brushed off by rubbing the surface of 
 the grain, no traces of it will remain on the skin ; that 
 will remain still intact. At the end of several days, 
 however, the dust will turn gray ; then, if rubbed off, 
 little black spots will appear scattered over the place 
 it occupied." 
 
 After remarking that these spots never go deeper 
 than the outer skin either of the fruit or other green 
 parts, and that the same spots slightly roughen the 
 surface, and are the seat of disorganizations whose 
 consequences are ruinous, hardening the skin (so 
 much more delicate in the European grapes than in 
 ours), so that, as the berries swell in growing, they 
 crack open to the centre, often showing their pits. 
 The same author goes on to say — 
 
 "The loss is much more rapid when the attack 
 comes just after blossoming. The small size of the 
 berries renders the disorganization of their whole sur- 
 faces easy; then they ce#se growing and dry up. 
 When the attack finds the grape approaching matu- 
 rity, it resists better. It seems to accomplish regular- 
 ly the divers stages of its development ; but, at the 
 moment of ripening, the grain wilts, and considerable 
 loss ensues, especially if the crop is not immediately 
 gathered." Again he says : 
 
 " The vine may be attacked at any age and at all 
 
16 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 epochs of vegetation, from the moment when the bud 
 breaks out of its envelope down to the time when the 
 leaves fall. It is easy to comprehend that between 
 these two extremes there is a crowd of intermediate 
 degrees, but at bottom the characteristics of the dis- 
 ease are always the same : 
 
 " Whitish dust (exhaling a musty odor) spread over 
 the surfaces of the green parts to the exclusion of the 
 old wood ; disorganizations caused by this dust, which 
 is composed of microscopic mushrooms {o'idium Tuck- 
 eri) ; evident trouble in the vegetation of the branch- 
 es whose fruit, leaves, or stalks are invaded." 
 
 M. de la Yergne agrees that, though the fungus in 
 question has obtained the name of o'idium, it should 
 properly be called an erysephe; while the author be- 
 fore quoted speaks of it as " the o'idium, or erysephe 
 of the vine." In common words, it is a fungus — a 
 mushroom. De la Yergne claims to have discovered, 
 as early as 1863, three different varieties of o'idium, 
 which have successively followed the first, each one 
 being less malignant than the one that came before 
 it, and all of them less malignant than the original. 
 
 In treating of the vine disease as known in Amer- 
 ica, I will call it neither o'idium, cryptogam, erysephe, 
 nor mucedine, but give it the name it commonly goes 
 by, which is mildew. 
 
The Mildew. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MILDEW. 
 
 QOON after the o'idium got abroad in Europe, it 
 ^ became known that the vines of this country were 
 being affected by a disease so nearly resembling it, to 
 say the least, that, by most persons concerned, the two 
 were supposed to be one and the same. Afterward, 
 however, this came to be disputed, and, on very re- 
 spectable authority, it was asserted that the fungus or 
 mushroom, whose presence and growth on the vines 
 produced, or rather constituted, the disease termed in 
 Europe o'idium, was not the same as that which con- 
 stituted the disease termed in America mildew, but 
 was another 'and different one. 
 
 Practically this distinction does not make any dif- 
 ference, yet I regret it has been made ; for, although it 
 is conceded that sulphur destroys one fungus as well 
 as another, and is the well-known specific for diseases 
 from fungus parasites, yet the mere fact that such a 
 distinction has been made has seriously impeded the 
 
18 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 progress in this country of that faith in the sulphur- 
 cure which the triumphant success following its adop- 
 tion on the other side of the water was otherwise cal- 
 culated to promote. Therefore it is proper this mat- 
 ter, microscopic as it is in every respect, should be de- 
 cided one way or the other, and I agree it is time it 
 should be done. And here it may seem strange that 
 one should write on the subject of mildew without 
 having an opinion on the point. If I am without one, 
 however, it is only because I rested firmly in the be- 
 lief that oidium and mildew were one and the same, 
 and not two and different, until the opportunity had 
 passed for making a thorough microscopic examina- 
 tion. Before next September comes, I hope to resolve 
 my own doubts at least. Meanwhile I may be al- 
 lowed to doubt when, after seeking the opinions of 
 distinguished chemists as well as others who have in- 
 vestigated the subject, I find myself unable to recon- 
 cile their conflicting judgments. 
 
 Here are some of the points of difference that 
 are claimed to exist between what is called oidium 
 in Europe and what is called mildew in this coun- 
 try. 
 
 First, Though the effects on the fruit of the earlier 
 attacks, which find it young and barely formed, are 
 the same there as here, yet those forms of decay which 
 
The Mildew. 19 
 
 follow the later attacks are generally different. In 
 Europe we hear mostly of the fruit cracking open, 
 while in America we notice chiefly the gray rot. I 
 have observed, however, that the Nortons do crack, 
 even to showing their seed ; and if our grapes of the 
 Fox family, which comprises nearly all we cultivate 
 besides the Nortons and Herbemont, had not such 
 thick skins, I fancy they would crack too ; but they 
 being defended, after reaching a pertain size, by a 
 kind of armor too tough for the clamps of the little 
 fungus to pierce, its ravages are confined to the 
 more tender fruit -stems, and, those stems being 
 blighted, the fruit dies, and gray rot, etc., are only 
 the rottenness that follows death. 
 
 Secondly, The effect of our mildew on the leaves is 
 far less serious than w T hat the o'idium is reported to 
 produce. But this may be because our leaves are 
 thicker and tougher, and much more covered with 
 down than those of the vine abroad. The compara- 
 tively delicate foliage of the Delaware certainly gives 
 way very readily before a serious attack, while the 
 leathery clothing of the Concord seems able to bear 
 unhurt an indefinite amount of gnawing, if indeed 
 the fungus is able to fasten on it at all. It is here 
 to be noted, however, that while o'idium attacks both 
 sides of the leaf, I have never seen or been able to 
 
20 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 learn of any case where our mildew has invaded the 
 upper side. Let me also note that M. Mares express- 
 es the opinion that neither the hardness or softness 
 of the fruit, nor the thickness or thinness of their 
 skin, nor the lightness or heaviness of the down cov- 
 ering the foliage of the different varieties seem to 
 make any difference with it. 
 
 Thirdly, and more to the point. A representation of 
 the mildew as seen by the microscope shows a fun- 
 gus somewhat different in shape from the oidium as 
 shown in engravings in European treatises. I myself 
 can not say, nor will it be easy, I think, for any one 
 to prove, that the differences thus shown are any 
 greater than may well exist between two erysephes, 
 or than distinguish the three varieties discovered by 
 De la Yergne. It is pretty well agreed now that the 
 European thing miscalled oidium is- an erysephe. Is 
 our thing an erysephe ? Yes ; years before the " oidi- 
 um" appeared in Europe, a German botanist named 
 " Schwienitz," who lived many years in America, dis- 
 covered here an erysephe which preyed on the grape- 
 vines of the Labrusca family. Montague, the distin- 
 guished French mycologist, who made the vine dis- 
 ease a special study, referring to this discovery of the 
 German, gives it as his opinion that it was either the 
 same as the European erysephe, or else a very, near 
 
The Mildew. 21 
 
 neighbor. Now, if M. Montagne can not tell ns the 
 difference between them, it can hardly be of any 
 practical importance to know it, and would certainly 
 be little worth our while to look for it. And we may 
 dismiss the subject with the reflection that, after all, 
 the distinguished, pestiferous parasite may Jiave had 
 its birth in our own country, and, though unnoticed, 
 had a hand in much of the destruction that came 
 upon our earliest vineyards before oidium was heard 
 of any where, and which destruction was all of it un- 
 justly attributed to " the rot? 
 
 But, in whatever respects they may differ, the, oidi- 
 um and mildew are alike in this : that each comes in 
 the form of a fine whitish dust, which afterward turns 
 grayish, and then brown or black — each appears at the 
 same epochs and returns after the same intervals — 
 each acts in the same manner on the young berries — 
 each flourishes best in the same state of weather, 
 namely, a season of heat following a season of wet, 
 while a long dry term ^is equally unpropitious to 
 the progress of each. Finally, each is effectually de- 
 stroyed by sulphur, which is the only practical point 
 in my story, and, if the reader doubts it, this book is 
 written to teach him how to make researches and ex- 
 periments which will satisfy his doubts, and to help 
 him test for himself the question whether or not the 
 
22 The Sulphuk-Cuke. 
 
 vine shall live and flourish in the land, or perish and 
 die. 
 
 Some confusion, both of words and ideas, has come 
 from the habit we have fallen into of calling many 
 of the consequences of mildew by the common name 
 of rot. ]\pldew works its mischief by attaching itself 
 to the surfaces of the leaf, the stalk, the stem, or the 
 berry, and, as it grows, penetrating with its clamps, 
 or grapples their outer skins, which it thereby dis- 
 organizes. The result of the disorganization thus ef- 
 fected is, sooner or later, the decay in some form of 
 the parts attacked. Such decay, as noticed in the 
 fruit, is commonly known as gray (or brown) rot, 
 characterized by a mottled appearance under the sur- 
 face, or" as " calf's eye," so called from its circular 
 shadings of dull brown hue, like the eye of a dead 
 calf, and which mostly begins on the side of the berry, 
 while " gray rot" begins at the base, where the stem 
 joins, or takes the form of a falling of the fruit as it 
 ripens, through general debility of the whole plant. 
 These are merely different symptoms of a disease — the 
 only disease properly so called which the vine knows. 
 Separate from these symptoms, and independent of 
 their cause, is an affection to which most American 
 vines are extremely subject, and which is the only af- 
 fection properly called rot. It is the "Mack rot? 
 
The Mildew. 23 
 
 whose characteristics, origin, and history I will here 
 endeavor to set forth, both to enable the reader the 
 better to understand mildew and its cure, and to 
 teach him, so far as I may pretend to teach, how to 
 manage the rot itself. 
 
24 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BLACK EOT. 
 
 fT^HIS is an affliction of sufficiently serious nature, 
 -*" resulting from bad drainage or bad ventilation, 
 or both, in connection with peculiar conditions of the 
 weather. It comes suddenly, with but few hours' 
 warning at most. It appears at first in light brown 
 spots, within which are often seen what looks like the 
 gnawings of insects. These spots soon turn black — 
 intense blue -black to the eye, but, seen through a 
 magnifier, dark brown. They are generally round in 
 form except on the leaves, where they are mostly an- 
 gular and irregular. Spots of gray (or brown) rot 
 begin at the base of the berry where the stem joins 
 it, but spots of black rot are scattered indiscriminate- 
 ly over the whole surface. A single one of them 
 will often cover half the berry, causing it to cave in. 
 
 Black rot is prone to seize upon the fruit-stem, into 
 
 • 
 
 which it will eat, leaving hollows like pits of smallpox. 
 The result of such destruction of the substance of the 
 
The Black Rot. 25 
 
 stem, where severe enough, is the subsequent decay of 
 the one or more berries depending from and nourished 
 by it, with much the appearance of gray rot (which 
 last rot I attribute to the workings of mildew on the 
 same stems). This result will be quick or slow, ac- 
 cording to the degree to which the stem is injured. 
 Spots of black rot, be they large or small, usually be- 
 come dotted with little raised pimples of blacker hue 
 than the rest of their surface, visible to the naked eye, 
 and easily felt with the finger. As decay progresses 
 it causes the discolored parts to cave in, and takes va- 
 rious aspects like decay from any other cause. 
 
 On the leaf black rot works quite slowly, and so it 
 does on the stalk, but on the fruit or fruit-stems its 
 ravages are rapidly accomplished. With a favorable 
 change of weather it will go as quickly as it comes. 
 This is seen where the state of weather that has 
 brought it on is followed by a clear, bright atmos- 
 phere and fair sky. Then the spots take a brighter 
 color, and seem to dry away, leaving harmless traces 
 of rust-like appearance, sometimes covering the in- 
 dented surface of scars more or less deep, whose aft- 
 er-effects will depend on their extent and the state of 
 the atmosphere. The spots sometimes run together, 
 or, rather, encroach upon each other, but otherwise 
 they are apt to preserve their rounded and distinct 
 
 B 
 
26 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 shape. Sometimes they are bordered at the edges 
 with a lighter shade of color. Black rot affects cer- 
 tain varieties more than others, and, equally spotted 
 with it, some grapes resist its action better than oth- 
 ers, notably the Concords, owing to their thick skins 
 and tough leaves. Its consequences are immediate, 
 as when the berries are directly attacked; or conse- 
 quential, as when they rot or atrophy through destruc- 
 tion of the fruit-stems or loss of vigor to the whole 
 plant from ravages on the stalks or leaves. In short, 
 black rot, like mildew, has many and divers manifest- 
 ations and consequences, but is itself unmistakable, 
 its characteristic features being the round or round- 
 ish and distinctly denned spots, their color black or 
 blue-black to the naked eye, and dark brown when 
 magnified, and the little black pimples which rough- 
 en their surfaces, though these last — almost invaria- 
 bly present on the berry — are frequently wanting on 
 the other parts, in the earlier stages at least. But it 
 is not a disease as mildew is, and medicine will not 
 cure it. 
 
 Black rot is worst on soils that are compact or 
 damp, and not well drained and in badly-aired situa- 
 tions. Fogs, frequent rains, and heavy dews are the 
 active causes which produce it. A long and wet 
 spring will predispose to it vines as well as other 
 
The Black Eot. 27 
 
 plants, so as to insure a fresh attack with each recur- 
 ring rain, or fog, or dew, followed by a hot sun. It 
 is of the same nature with, or, rather, it is the same 
 thing as, those mould spots which similar conditions 
 cause to appear on apples, pears, and other fruit, and 
 the blackness which dyes the silk of corn in wet sea- 
 sons. It is carbon. In France they name it carbon, 
 " Charbon," and, more scientifically, " Anthracnose," 
 which means "Black sickness" for they have long- 
 known it in France, and know no good of it either. 
 
 The ancient Greeks, too, were acquainted with it ; 
 and Theophrastus, who lived three hundred years be- 
 fore Christ, has left us an account of it, which, though 
 brief, enables us easily to recognize it. He described 
 it as resembling rust in wheat, as causing a shrivel- 
 ing of the fruit, as coming " in damp weather, when, 
 after an abundant dew, the sun darts down his pow- 
 erful rays.'\ He called it "Crambos." M. Mares, 
 who resides in the South of France, thinks the Greek 
 Crambos identical with the French " Charbon," 
 which last he describes thus : 
 
 " It makes its appearance after a prolonged dura- 
 tion of dampness, when the weather is at the same 
 time hot, heavy, and foggy, or after copious dews, 
 and when, through an atmosphere burdened with 
 vapor, the sun darts his ardent beams. But the al- 
 
28 The Sulphue-Cuee. 
 
 terations of lieat and damp are never so serious in re- 
 sults as when they follow a prolonged term of rainy 
 weather." 
 
 So much for the causes which produce it. For the 
 effects of " Charbon," the same writer inf orms us that 
 it makes irregular patches of black, sometimes bor- 
 dered with yellow, to appear on the leaves, which 
 cause them to curl downward, crisp, and fall [we 
 must remember French grape-leaves are much more 
 delicate than ours] ; that it injures the young stem so 
 the fruit below the affected part will shrivel and fall 
 off ; that it appears on the fruit only after it has at- 
 tained some size, and in the shape of black spots, 
 which harden and prevent its development. 
 
 He also adds that " Charbon" attacks the vines all 
 of a sudden, and the injury is done all at once ; that, 
 when very recent, the injuries appear like brown 
 spots or excoriations, as from insect bites ; that usual- 
 ly several attacks occur in the course of one season ; 
 that as often as the fog or dew are abruptly succeed- 
 ed by sunshine, the attacks are renewed, and can 
 readily be counted ; that the same kind of weather 
 which brings rust to wheat, and spots pears and other 
 fruit with black, causes " Charbon" on grapes. 
 
 Many persons in this country, confounding black 
 rot with the symptoms and effects of the fungus we 
 
The Black Rot. 29 
 
 call mildew, and searching in this rot for the causes 
 of mildew with a view to its cure, and having dis- 
 covered beneath the skin of the afflicted part a fungus 
 of quite another sort than that of the mildew devel- 
 oped there, and which, growing beneath the skin, is, 
 of course, inaccessible to sulphur, have thence infer- 
 red that sulphur could not cure mildew. 
 
 Now this subcutaneous fungus is of no sort of con- 
 sequence either in relation to the curability of the 
 black rot itself or to the curability of the mildew. 
 Mares tells us that whatever fruit is affected by 
 " Charbon," whether it be a mulberry, a pear, or an 
 apple, there is a fungus present, concerning which, he 
 further tells us, that it begins its life early enough to 
 exist in those excoriations like the gnawings of in- 
 sects which have been described, though it does not 
 develop until several days later; that it is not the 
 cause of the disease, hut its effect ; that it is very 
 small, conical, and grows heneath the skin. 
 
 I think all who have observed the progress of black 
 rot will recognize it easily in the above description of 
 the " Crambos" of old Greece and the " Charbon" of 
 modern France, and unite in thanks to M. Mares for 
 shedding so clear- a light on a dark subject. I hope, 
 too, those who have suffered from this evil agent will 
 take courage when they consider how, from imme- 
 
30 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 morial time, those countries have endured its pres- 
 ence, and their grape culture survived its attacks. 
 And such as have been careful to distinguish be- 
 tween the two will bear me witness that, as compared 
 with .mildew, black rot is not so very serious a thing 
 but that our culture can survive it. Nor is it so very 
 trifling a thing either but that we should seek out and 
 apply the proper means to prevent it. Those means 
 are drainage and ventilation, as is w r ell known in the 
 South of France. There they are careful also to 
 plant in situations hard to drain, or where the air cir- 
 culates badly, such varieties of vine only as are known 
 to be least subject to the " Charbon." By such pre- 
 cautions they are able to keep the evil within reason- 
 able bounds. My own vineyard being at the top of 
 one of the 600 feet Scioto County hills, and 200 feet 
 above the usual range of Ohio River fogs, and thus 
 exceptionally well situated, I was able, by draining it, 
 to keep the black rot so effectually in check during 
 the season of 1869 that its ravages were barely no- 
 ticeable, except in an undrained corner close to a 
 thick wood. And in that year of 1869 that rot rioted 
 throughout that valley, let me tell you. The corn- 
 silk turned black as if dipped in ink, and every hay- 
 stack looked as if covered with a pall. Apples and 
 pears were discolored and distorted by it,- and, as a 
 
The Black Rot. 31 
 
 rule, only those grapes escaped the black destruction 
 which the more swiftly-consuming mildew " ate to 
 save them." But all sites and soils are not so favor- 
 able for being drained and aired, nor so free from 
 fogs, as the high and dry hill where my vines grow. 
 And, from what I saw in less favorable situations, I 
 can well believe that for certain varieties there are 
 vineyards in which, during seasons like that of 1869, 
 the evil would be too inveterate to resist. 
 
 I am aware many persons have supposed gray (or 
 brown) rot to be as distinct from mildew as black rot 
 is, but observation will teach them that gray rot is 
 only a consequence of attacks of mildew which come 
 after the berry is more than half grown, and is the 
 principal, and often the only form of injury which 
 follows those attacks. They will also find, as I did, 
 that sulphur prevents it, except where it (or some- 
 thing like it) results from the gnawings of black rot 
 on the fruit-stems. 
 
32 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 REASONS WHY THE SULPHUR-CURE IS NOT PRACTICED 
 IN AMERICA. 
 
 TT^AILURE of Experiments. — Many experiments 
 ■*- have been thought to fail because those who 
 made them did not clearly know the distinction be- 
 tween black rot on the one hand, and the gray rot, 
 and other decay consequent on attacks of mildew, on 
 the other hand. Some have thought mildew was one 
 disease, gray rot another, and black rot another, while 
 others have confounded all three in one general idea 
 of " rot." And the observations in the last chapter 
 on black rot, though sufficiently important in them- 
 selves, have been partly introduced to explain how 
 experiments which may have* well enough cured the 
 particular attack of mildew against which they were 
 directed, have, by those who conducted them, been 
 considered failures merely because they did not also 
 prevent black rot. Such persons may have applied 
 sulphur enough to their vines, and yet their fruit has 
 
Not Practiced in America. 33 
 
 rotted ; and seeing this, they have abandoned the field 
 in despair, whereas, had they persevered and closely 
 observed, they would have learned in the end, as I 
 did, that though, despite their efforts, black rot con- 
 tinued to work, even on grapes covered with sulphur- 
 dust, yet that nothing else injurious had occurred; 
 and would have found, when the season closed, that, 
 although they had lost more or less of their crop from 
 the " black sickness," yet that the far more terrible 
 white one — the fungus of evil, the dire cryptogam of 
 the accursed family of Mucedines — had not dared 
 show his head. 
 
 Attenuations of Sulphur, or compounds in which 
 the power of that drug has been weakened by mixing 
 it with other inefficacious substances either dry or in 
 solution, have again caused failures. Such mixtures, 
 tried at certain times and on certain varieties of vine, 
 have, even in our warmer grape districts, sometimes 
 succeeded. The same mixtures, however, under other 
 and less favorable conditions, have failed, and, by con- 
 sequence, the remedy has fallen into disrepute and 
 been abandoned. Mixtures which weaken the medi- 
 cine do very well in the colder vine-regions of France 
 and Germany, and, with certain varieties and in sea- 
 sons when the disease is mild, do very well, too, in 
 warmer districts, like the South of France ; but ex- 
 B2 
 
34 The Sulphur-Cue e. 
 
 periments made in the last-named district establish 
 the fact that under a warm sun, adulterated sulphur, 
 even when applied by skillful hands, can by no means 
 be absolutely relied on. Far less could it be relied 
 on in the hands of new beginners, making their first 
 experiments in this hot climate of ours, so much near- 
 er resembling that of Southern France than that of 
 Germany. It was because of this similarity of the 
 climate of most of our grape region to that of the 
 Mediterranean shore that I studied the sulphur-cure 
 there rather than on the Rhine. 
 
 Bad Tools will not do good work. The bellows 
 hitherto relied on by the few who have attempted to 
 combat mildew in America seem to have been made 
 as complicated and expensive as could be contrived, 
 whereas the best sulphur-bellows is the simplest and 
 cheapest. An agricultural laborer who is asked to 
 introduce into his accustomed routine of work a new 
 series of operations, requiring care and attention to 
 learn, and exactitude and fidelity to practice, ought 
 not to be burdened at the outset with a clumsy, 
 troublesome, inefficient implement; yet such have 
 been all sulphur-bellows of American make I have 
 yet been able to find. So great a disgust can they 
 inspire, that a German who worked his own vineyard, 
 and who tried sulphur on his vines, reported that it 
 
Not Practiced in America. 35 
 
 cured them, but vowed lie would never try it again — 
 " it was too much trouble," he said. So I put down 
 bad bellows for another cause of failure. 
 
 Ignorance of the Rules to follow in the practice 
 of the sulphur-cure has been, after all, the chief cause 
 of our failures. So far as, after much inquiry, I can 
 learn, the translation of Mares's " Manual," which I 
 embodied in my work on European Vineyards pub- 
 lished last year, is the only manual of the cure yet 
 printed in America ; and what little knowledge on 
 the subject we have picked up has been adapted to 
 cold climates, where the noxious erysephe makes com- 
 paratively rare visits and has but a feeble growth, and 
 not from climates analogous to our own. The prin- 
 ciples to be followed are by no means difficult to learn 
 or to follow, but they must be learned and followed, 
 or there will be no success. If any American vine- 
 dresser, who shall read the directions given in this lit- 
 tle manual for sulphuring timely, appropriately, thor- 
 oughly diseased vines, will afterward say he has fol- 
 lowed those directions and yet has failed, then his 
 failure may be set to the account of the cure itself ; 
 otherwise to the account of his, and my, and our ig- 
 norance. 
 
 Belief that the American Mildew was a differ- 
 ent Disease from the European Oidium has largely 
 
36 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 operated against our adopting in this country the 
 remedy which has been so incontestably successful 
 in others. All that bears on the question of the iden- 
 tity of the two diseases I have tried to give in Chap- 
 ters II and III. But practically it is of no conse- 
 quence whether they are different or are the same. 
 Each is a fungus, and all fungi are cured with sul- 
 phur. For the use of this remedy was not the result 
 of chance, but of scientific deduction, and the same 
 indications which pointed it out as the true, reliable, 
 and scientific cure of o'idium, points to it now as an 
 equally suitable cure of mildew. 
 
 Delusive Hopes in new Soils and new Varie- 
 ties have led our later enlisted and more enterpri- 
 sing grape-growers to treat all information relating to 
 vine disease as concerning not them, but only the un- 
 fortunate owners of vineyards of Catawba in the 
 older vine districts. And these, in turn, made de- 
 spondent by the clamor in favor of lake-shore vine- 
 yards and Concord vines, have abandoned hope and 
 ceased to strive against the fate, as they deem it, 
 which dooms them and their property to remediless 
 ruin. The " lazy Spaniards" and " enervate Italians" 
 have learned what Americans have refused to know, 
 and done what Americans have refused to do. They 
 have learned what was good for oidium, and they 
 
Not Practiced in America. 37 
 
 have saved their grapes. Newly-planted vines and 
 new varieties will, for a limited time, do well any 
 where, and notwithstanding neglect and ill usage. 
 Hence we from time to time hear of the wonderful 
 productiveness of freshly-discovered grape districts, 
 and especially of their immunity from disease. And 
 doubtless the glowing accounts which come from one 
 and another of the new fields of operation are to 
 some degree founded in reason. We shall, for a long 
 time, I hope, continue to hear cf discoveries of more 
 propitious soils and more valuable grape plants. But 
 whoever hopes, by traveling ever so far, or hybridiz- 
 ing ever so industriously, to escape from the ordinary 
 conditions of labor and vigilance to which all kinds 
 of cultivation of the products of the earth are sub- 
 jected by universal law, will find himself mistaken. 
 Undrained soils will sooner or later breed the black 
 rot, greedy pruning will sooner or later exhaust the 
 best vineyards, and the spores of mildew, ever present 
 in the atmosphere, will in their own good time find 
 out the vines they so much love to afflict. In 1868 I 
 visited some vineyards in a county into which grape- 
 culture had but lately been introduced, and where 
 hardly any thing but the Concord was known. Pass- 
 ing from one beautiful field where perfect health pre- 
 vailed, and the assurance of an eight-hundred-gallon 
 
38 The Sulphur-Cuke. 
 
 crop to the acre gladdened the eye, for all was pur- 
 pling for vintage time, and entering another adjoin- 
 ing it, I found disease to be playing havoc there. 
 " Why is this ?" inquired the owner ; " the soil and ex- 
 posure of both fields are the same, and the vines in 
 both are Concords." " How old is the healthy field V 
 I asked. "Four years." "And the sickly one?" 
 " Five." " Yery well," says I ; " see how your four- 
 year olds do when they get to be five-year olds." The 
 next year there came bad news from that county. 
 And the same year, 1869, came also bad news from 
 the new vine district of Crooked Lake, which had 
 theretofore been esteemed so healthy. Now a safer 
 place of refuge than the borders of Crooked Lake can 
 hardly be imagined. The coldness of the climate is 
 unpropitious to the development of mildew, and the 
 decomposed shale* in the soil seems to have a posi- 
 tive preventive power, owing to the sulphur it con- 
 tains; and seems, besides, to have other elements 
 which give strength, and strength resists all diseases. 
 
 * Black shale, containing sulphur and various other ingredients 
 beneficial to the grape, abounds not only in New York, where it first 
 took the name of Hamilton Shale, but also in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 
 several other states. Many persons think its value is only beginning 
 to be found out. It borders the eastern end of the shore of Lake 
 Erie, and has a most marked development in the Valley of the Ohio 
 below the mouth of the Scioto. It is not a coal shale. 
 
Not Practiced in America. 
 
 39 
 
 If such a region has had to succumb, it will be hard 
 to find one that will long remain exempt. 
 
 Taking the Catawba as a sample, the most rosy 
 reports we have yet heard from any of the new dis- 
 tricts are fully equaled by those published by Mr. 
 Longworth and others in the earlier days of their 
 success in the Ohio Valley. Yet what is the case 
 to-day? Let all illusions be abandoned; let us look 
 our foe closely in the face, feel his pulse, learn his 
 symptoms, search out his causes and consequences, 
 select the remedy, and faithfully administer it. 
 
40 The Sulphue-Ccee. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 SOMETHING ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF SULPHUR ON 
 FOLIAGE. 
 
 TT is not for the purpose of meeting any objection 
 -*- that may be abroad that sulphur hurts foliage, for 
 I know of none, but because all facts bearing on the 
 subject in hand should be noted, and as a caution it 
 is prudent to give, that I here state a few facts of my 
 own observing. 
 
 Resolved to leave nothing to chance, and do all in 
 the most thorough manner, I gave directions, which I 
 saw well carried out, to spare neither material nor la- 
 bor ; to give the disease enough of it. As a conse- 
 quence of such heroic treatment, my Norton's Seed- 
 lings suffered severely in their leaves. The more 
 sickly of my Catawbas too, after having endured and 
 nourished under five superabundant powderings, each 
 one twice or thrice too large, were evidently injured 
 by the sixth, though but few leaves fell off, and the 
 fruit ripened well, and though the healthy vines of 
 
Effects of Sulphur on Foliage. 41 
 
 the same variety, and the few Concords in the vine- 
 yard, showed no signs of harm. Some Ives Seedlings 
 in the neighborhood also suffered in their leaves, but 
 only temporarily. I have also heard of an instance 
 where some Herbemonts acted very much as did my 
 Nortons. And, though unaware of any other cases 
 like the above, I am prepared to learn that such have 
 occurred, proving that certain of our vines are ex- 
 ceptionally sensitive to the action of sulphur, if given 
 in unusually large quantities. 
 
 In Europe the effect on foliage of the drug in ques- 
 tion is recognized as being so unqualifiedly beneficial, 
 that they estimate the gain in productiveness obtain- 
 ed by its use quite compensates for the cost of both 
 material and labor ; and I feel sure, from what I have 
 observed, that the same will prove true in this coun- 
 try. I noticed, in my own vineyard, what all I had 
 read and heard on the subject taught me to expect, 
 that within ten days from the dusting on of the sul- 
 phur the leaves grew deeper in hue, and showed a 
 lively shining surface, as' if they had been varnished, 
 while the shoots sprouted upward with fresh vigor 
 and spirit. The effect on the slight incrustation, or- 
 ganic and mineral, which will more or less cover and 
 clog the pores of the leaf, as perspiration or dirt will 
 clog the pores of the human skin, seems to be to 
 
42 The Sulphur-Cue e. 
 
 loosen it, so that the rains wash the surface cleaner 
 than otherwise they would, thus giving a better access 
 of air, and enabling those "lungs of the vine," as 
 leaves are called, to breathe freer. 
 
 I also demonstrated the power of sulphur to de- 
 stroy or chase away insects. Though appearing in 
 considerable numbers on many of the vines just be- 
 fore the first sulphuring in July, they suddenly disap- 
 peared immediately after it, and, from that time on, 
 hardly one sign of animal life could be seen through- 
 out the field. But this complete extermination must 
 be credited to the uncommonly strong doses given. 
 Ordinarly less complete, yet still very valuable results 
 in this respect are to be looked for. 
 
 So evident and well-known in France is the stimu- 
 lating power of sulphur on the vegetation, that at first 
 serious fears were felt lest the vines should be injured 
 by over-stimulation; but such fears have long since 
 vanished. In that country, the only effect of sulphur 
 analogous to that I have noticed as produced on the 
 foliage of certain varieties in this, is a " scalding" of 
 the fruit, which in the South of France sometimes re- 
 sults from a sulphuring given during very hot weath- 
 er, and on bunches exposed to the sun's direct rays. 
 As a means to avoid this result, when feared, Mares 
 recommends mixing the sulphur with lime, plaster, 
 
Effects of Sulphur on Foliage. 43 
 
 etc., to weaken its power. And, should we in prac- 
 tice find, what I greatly doubt, that a proper use of 
 sulphur injures any of our vine-leaves, we have here 
 a hint of the proper precaution to take. Of course 
 it would be possible to use, with as good effect, very 
 fine sulphur by itself, if we had implements to dis- 
 tribute it thinly enough, which I think we might con- 
 trive. 
 
 I am sure that, in my anxiety to thoroughly test 
 the value of treating mildew with sulphur, I put on 
 more than twice what was needed, and twice as often 
 as was needed. There is hardly any medicine that 
 will not do harm if the doses are too large or too fre- 
 quent. But I thought less of my vines than of the 
 mildew I was dealing with. As I have before, and 
 on another occasion said, " He who kills his first rat- 
 tlesnake does not count the blows he gives." I think, 
 too, the coarse flour of sulphur used held an excess 
 of sulphuric acid, which injures foliage. 
 
 Again, the only vines observed to be seriously hurt 
 by sulphur were Herbemonts and Norton's Virginia 
 Seedlings, both of which are known to take mildew 
 very lightly when they take it at all, and would there- 
 fore, it is probable, need but light treatment for their 
 cure. There are several varieties of vine in the South 
 of France which resist oidium much better than oth- 
 
44 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 ers, and such are found to be easily curable with the 
 attenuations of sulphur before mentioned. It would 
 be so, no doubt, with the two American vines just 
 named. Both of these, it should be observed, belong 
 to the family of Vitis cestavilis, while it was the other 
 family, Vitis labrusca, that Mr. Schweinitz discovered 
 the erysephe to be fond of preying upon. Yery like- 
 ly my Nortons would have escaped disease complete- 
 ly, even had they received no sulphur at all, as they 
 had always done down to the time when I dosed them 
 so rudely. 
 
 I dwell thus much on what relates to the Norton 
 and the Herbemont, because I think them both of in- 
 estimable value, not merely for their remarkable ex- 
 emption from disease, but also for the excellence of 
 their products as wine grapes, and quite agree with 
 Mr. Sanders that it is to the juicy and delicate family 
 of Y. ^Estavilis we should chiefly look for our supply 
 of wine rather than to the thick-skinned and hard- 
 pulped musky generation of " Foxes," albeit the Ca- 
 tawba and Delaware, neither of which should by any 
 means be despised,, have come out of it. 
 
Effects of Sulphur in the Wine. 45 
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EFFECTS OF SULPHUR IN THE WINE. 
 
 BAT) flavor is sometimes communicated to wine 
 from the remains of sulphur on the grapes, and 
 serious objections to the use of the remedy were at 
 one time raised on this account. This taste it has, 
 however, been found easy to get rid of by drawing 
 off. If one operation does not suffice, a second in the 
 manner prescribed below will be sure to succeed. 
 
 Einse carefully your empty cask, first with cold, 
 and then with warm water, then again with cold ; for 
 every forty gallons it will hold, pour in a quart of 
 clean water, and leave it there. Burn within the 
 cask, for every forty gallons it will hold, one square 
 inch of rag or wick incrusted with sulphur by being 
 dipped in it while melted ; close the bung tightly, and 
 roll and shake the cask to let the water within it ab- 
 sorb well the vapors of sulphurous acid produced by 
 the burning. Into the cask thus prepared draw your 
 wine, doing this by means of buckets, and not by any 
 
46 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 of the modes contrived to exclude the air, since con- 
 tact with it helps to disinfect the wine. 
 
 But be careful to leave all lees behind ; therefore 
 do not tip the cask. The thicker wine remaining 
 with the lees must be settled by putting it in a small- 
 er vessel, and then drawnig off by itself in the same 
 way as the other. Any portion of lees carried into 
 the fresh cask under the influence of a slight subse- 
 quent fermentation will again form sulphureted hy- 
 drogen, which constitutes the bad taste in question. 
 
 The above is from De la Yergne's " Practical In- 
 structions." 
 
 This sulphureted hydrogen decomposes when 
 brought in contact with the sulphurous acid pro- 
 duced by burning the sulphur-coated rag or wick, 
 #nd thus the objectionable flavor passes off. But it 
 will be slight enough to go away in the ordinary 
 drawing off which must necessarily be performed for 
 other purposes, unless sulphur has been applied to 
 the vines late in the season, and in needlessly large 
 quantities, and no heavy rain has come to wash it off, 
 nor sufficient heat intervened to vaporize it away. 
 
 But the slight inconvenience of this sulphur flavor, 
 so easily got rid of, is an inconsiderable evil compared 
 with what results when, in absence of the proper rem- 
 edy, the mildew, or its remains, passes into the wine. 
 
Effects of Sulphur in the Wine. 47 
 
 For which reason it is always well to sulphur vines 
 whenever any considerable attack of the disease oc- 
 curs late in the season, even though it come too late 
 to injure the fruit ; for by fastening on such parts of 
 the fruit-stems as yet remain green, it can maintain a 
 •foothold until vintage, and so find entrance into the 
 press or vat. 
 
 M. Mares thinks the small quantity of sulphureted 
 gas that will ordinarily be found in the new wine is 
 valuable to preserve it, and thinks, too, the wine made 
 of sulphured grapes is more even in quality, has a 
 brighter color — very important in red wine — and 
 keeps better than other wine ; while De la Vergne 
 says the time will soon come when those who buy 
 wine of the producer will be glad to hear him say, 
 " My vines were thoroughly sulphured ;" and we all 
 know that in commerce it has long been used to fu- 
 migate wine-casks, without complaint being made of 
 any bad effect resulting. 
 
48 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS AND MIXTURES OF SULPHUR. 
 
 T3 O WDERED sulphur is made in two forms, one 
 -*- by sublimation and the other by grinding. Sub- 
 limated sulphur, commonly known as flour of sulphur, 
 is usually finer than the other, and adheres better to 
 surfaces against which it is flung. On the other hand, 
 it contains six or eight times more impurity in form 
 of sulphuric acid than the other, and costs considera- 
 bly more. A good deal of inferior flour is made that 
 is no finer than the ordinary qualities of ground. 
 The value of powdered sulphur in curing the vine- 
 disease depends on its fineness, other things being 
 equal, since it is by the number of its grains its power 
 must be estimated, and not by their size or weight ; 
 and, moreover, the finer the grains are, the better they 
 adhere. The comparative fineness of two given sam- 
 ples can be pretty well ascertained by first weighing 
 and then measuring them. The larger the bulk, the 
 finer will be the quality ; and the less the bulk, the 
 coarser will be the quality. 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 49 
 
 But such a test, though sufficient for practical ex- 
 actness where all the qualities to be judged are either 
 flour of sulphur or else all ground sulphur, would fail 
 to give a true idea of the comparative value of the 
 two kinds in question, because the form of the grains 
 of the flour is such that with equal fineness they ad- 
 here better to surfaces than those of the other kind, 
 and because the ground is more movable — more dust- 
 like than the other, and flies more readily out of the 
 bellows or dredge-box ; so that, fineness being equal, 
 a pound of the flour will go farther than a pound of 
 the ground. Care must be taken, when making the 
 measurement, to pack the mass as little as possible, 
 since but slight pressure would be required to pack 
 the finer article within smaller space than the coarser 
 occupied. 
 
 For a more scientifically correct test, M. Chancel, 
 of Montpellier, in France, has invented the following 
 method : 
 
 Weigh five "grammes" for instance, of the sul- 
 phur to be tested, and put it in a cylindrical tube of 
 glass, divided off by a scale into a hundred equal por- 
 tions. For five grammes the capacity of the tube 
 should be twenty-five cubic " centimetres" so each di- 
 vision or degree of the scale will represent about one 
 
 C 
 
50 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 fourth of a " centimetre."* That the mouth of the 
 tube may be easily closed with the finger, its diame- 
 ter should be about three fourths of an inch. In such 
 a tube the sulphur will of course pack itself unequal- 
 ly. To correct the inequality, pour in gradually sul- 
 phuric ether, and shake until all the sulphur has en- 
 tered into suspension ; then fill up with more of the 
 ether ; shake again ; set the tube aside and allow the 
 contents to settle. The powder will pack itself regu- 
 larly, and occupy within the vessel a space proportion- 
 ate to its lightness — that is, its fineness. At the end 
 of five minutes, if the experiment be with flour of 
 sulphur, it will have settled entirely, and the result 
 can be read on the scale. The better the sulphur, 
 the higher will be the degree to which it reaches. 
 
 Exact as this test is for ascertaining fineness where 
 applied to ground sulphur alone or flour of sulphur 
 alone, it is only approximately so when the one kind 
 is compared with the other, as the difference in the 
 shape of their grains causes them to pack differently 
 in the glass. Experiments made in the above mode 
 by M. Mares gave the following results : 
 
 " Good flours occupied in the tube from 50 to 70 
 divisions of the 100. 
 
 * A "gramme" is about twenty-three grains, and one hundred lineal 
 centimetres measure about thirty-nine inches. 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 51 
 
 " Flours of superior quality, very fine and homo- 
 geneous, filled from 75 to 90 divisions, and some were 
 found, though rarely, which went up to 95 and even 
 100. 
 
 "Inferior flours were found which did not rise 
 higher than from 35 to 40. Such hardly merit the 
 name of flour of sulphur. They reveal to the touch 
 much gresil, as little balls of sulphur are called in 
 which the coarser qualities are apt to abound, and are' 
 very heavy. 
 
 "When the experiment is made with ground sul- 
 phur, a good deal more than five minutes must be al- 
 lowed for the mass to settle, which is because this 
 kind mixes with the ether differently from the other, 
 forming a kind of paste. . ■ 
 
 " The greater part of the ground sulphur of com- 
 merce, made from rolls, measured in the tube from 
 35 to 40. The finest and purest I could obtain went 
 up to 60 and 70. Common qualities of ground, of 
 the fineness indicated by 36 of the scale, after being 
 passed through a sieve of silk, indicated 43 ; this last, 
 pounded in a mortar of agate, showed 60." 
 
 Ground sulphur seems to be as yet unknown in the 
 American market. It may, however, be found that 
 it will be economical for us to employ it on our vines 
 if we can obtain a very fine quality of it, and very 
 
52 The Sulphur-Cttke. 
 
 cheap as compared with the other kind; and I have 
 taken means to import a specimen of what is now 
 commonly used in Italy, with a view of comparing it 
 with the flour of sulphur made in America. It will 
 follow, from what has just been quoted, that the ques- 
 tion is a complex one of cost and quality. 
 
 Both kinds will cure the disease if brought in con- 
 tact with it, and though in Europe disputes as to which 
 *is most economical still continue, both continue to be 
 used. As the result of his own experience, M. Mares 
 says : " I have tried ground sulphur on a large scale, 
 and have obtained with it good results. Many others 
 have done the same, and with like success. We must, 
 therefore, admit its efficacy against the disease. Still 
 I must say that the effects of the flour have been the 
 most marked, and have determined me to give it the 
 preference. 
 
 " Employing in my experiments flour of sulphur of 
 55 to 60 degrees of fineness according to the above 
 scale, and ground sulphur of 35 to 40 degrees, I had 
 to use on a given number of vines 75 per cent, more 
 of the latter than of the former ; that is to say, 100 
 pounds of the flour went as far as 175 pounds of the 
 ground." 
 
 M. de la Yergne is even more positive than M. 
 Mares in preferring the sublimated article. And yet 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 53 
 
 I think it is worth our while to look into the question 
 for ourselves, not merely for the reasons I have above 
 suggested, but because our present tariff puts so high 
 a duty on flour of sulphur that none of it is imported, 
 and we are forced to obtain what we may need from 
 two or three large manufactories which enjoy the 
 monopoly of the business. Thus, while in Trance se- 
 lections can be made from the products of a large 
 number of rival manufacturers, here we are reduced 
 almost to Hobson's choice. Another unpleasant ef- 
 fect is that we are obliged to pay in gold for our sul- 
 phur twice what Frenchmen pay ; and what is curi- 
 ous too is that, while the government compels us to 
 pay this large price, not a cent of it goes into the gov- 
 ernment treasury. 
 
 Our manufacturers probably can make as fine sub- 
 limated sulphur as any in Europe. The question is, 
 Will they find it profitable to do so ? And to help 
 them to a decision of this last question, we, who are 
 likely to be such large consumers, may as well in time 
 cast about us for a resort in case of need. 
 
 It costs four or five times as much to sublimate 
 (distill) sulphur as it does to grind it. Grinding it 
 could be well done, I should think, in a plaster-mill ; 
 but the process is dangerous, and, unless it be care- 
 fully managed, the mill will take fire. To refine the 
 
54 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 crude article, all needed is to melt and run it into 
 box-wood moulds, and there suddenly cool it, which 
 converts it into what are known as " rolls." 
 
 Flour of sulphur is known from the other by its 
 much brighter color and by being softer when rubbed 
 between the fingers. Grains of the flour, when seen 
 in the microscope, appear as round balls, while those 
 of the other are of irregular and broken shapes. 
 
 Various mixtures of Sulphur with other substan- 
 ces in powder, such as lime, plaster, etc., have been 
 recommended, and are used to a considerable extent. 
 As the value of such attenuations is somewhat under 
 discussion in this country, it may be well to give in 
 this place the conclusions to which a committee of 
 the Agricultural Society of the Gironde, in France, 
 came, after a series of experiments conducted by 
 them in the year 1861, which, for thoroughness, I 
 would gladly see emulated in this country. The re- 
 port of the committee sums up as follows : 
 
 " These experiments prove that oidium is cured by 
 powdered sulphur, no matter what be the shape of its 
 particles, nor whether it be used by itself, or mixed 
 with twice its weight of plaster, for the ground sul- 
 phur, as well as the mixture of plaster and sulphur, 
 has repressed the oidium at each application your 
 committee made with these two powders. But the 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 55 
 
 same experiments also prove that the curative action 
 of sulphur is more durable when applied in the form 
 of good flour of sulphur. They prove, moreover, that 
 a given quantity of well-made flour of sulphur has 
 more virtue than double the quantity of ground sul- 
 phur, or three times the quantity of sulphur and plas- 
 ter ; so that, to perform the same duty, it is necessary 
 to repeat the operation of sulphuring of tener with the 
 two last powders than with the first, and, in point of 
 view of economy of material and labor, the advant- 
 age, according to these experiments, remains with the 
 good flour of sulphur. [The report states that all 
 these powders were of the best quality and fineness.] 
 
 " Moreover, practice concurs with theory to prove 
 the inferiority of all mixtures of sulphur with other 
 kinds of dust. 
 
 "Experience proves that dust from the road, ashes, 
 lime, charcoal, mineral coal, piaster, and other sub- 
 stances, in a pulverized state, have not by themselves 
 any power in curing the disease. 
 
 " In mixing any one or more of these inert dusts 
 with sulphur, you impart no virtue to it, any more 
 than you increase the strength of a good wine by di- 
 luting it with water. 
 
 "On the other hand, although but a very small 
 quantity of sulphur is needed in contact with the oi'di- 
 
56 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 um to destroy it, yet there must be a minimum, less 
 than which would fail of that end. 
 
 " That limited quantity, fixed by experience, is such 
 quantity as, if well scattered, is sufficient to powder 
 with sulphur all the green parts of the vine, so that a 
 branch, or a leaf, or a bunch, looked at against the 
 light, shows the grains very close together on all points 
 of its surface. 
 
 " If great intervals existed "between the grains of 
 sulphur and the oidium, whose organs are so extraor- 
 dinarily loose, could it not maintain its place in cer- 
 tain cases and continue to develop itself ? 
 
 " Now the quantity of sulphur indispensable to pen- 
 etrate and envelop thus with a light cloud of dust the 
 green parts of a vine could not be properly spread if 
 it were mixed with a double or triple quantity of in- 
 ert matter. 
 
 " Supposing the mixture perfect, each grain of sul- 
 phur must be separated from another grain by two or 
 three grains of the other material. 
 
 " But the mixture is never perfect. Do what you 
 will, the magnifying-glass will always show the pure 
 sulphur resting in masses, more or less large, by the 
 side of masses, more or less large also, of the material 
 put with it. 
 
 " It is, then, evident, that if you spread on the sur- 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 57 
 
 face of the plant a quantity of the mixture only equal 
 to the quantity of sulphur needed to preserve that 
 plant, you will not obtain the effect desired. 
 
 " But if you must employ, to do the work that one 
 pound of pure sulphur would do, three pounds of a 
 mixture whereof one third is sulphur and the other 
 two thirds inert matter, why not, by means of well- 
 made instruments, spread upon the vines to be cured 
 the one pound of sulphur by itself, and save the cost 
 of the other useless ingredients, as well as the labor 
 of handling them ? 
 
 " It appears, besides, that those useless ingredients 
 diminish, to a certain degree, the action of the useful 
 one, since the pure flour of sulphur employed by our 
 committee produced a more durable effect than a 
 triple quantity of the mixture, one third of which 
 was sulphur. 
 
 " Again, that which our experiments have enabled 
 us to affirm concerning a mixture of two parts of 
 plaster with one of sulphur only confirms the result 
 arrived at by trials made in the Gironde since 1859 
 by many different persons, as well with the above 
 compound as with others, which the minutes of a 
 great number of your sessions will attest." 
 
 A LIQUID PREPARATION OF SULPHUR AND LlME is oft- 
 en recommended. It is prepared by mixing together 
 
 C2 
 
58 The Sulphur-Cue e. * 
 
 equal quantities by weight of sulphur and newly- 
 slacked lime, and boiling them in eight times their 
 weight of water, during ten minutes, in an iron ves- 
 sel. After settling, the liquid is drawn off clear, put 
 in bottles, and well corked. For use, one gallon of 
 this is mixed with a hundred gallons of water, and 
 with the mixture thus prepared the vines are syr- 
 inged. Thorough experiments made in different parts 
 of France have resulted in the abandonment of this 
 " sulphur of calchium," as they there call it. It costs 
 little, but must be frequently renewed on the vines. 
 Its liquid form is objectionable, and, after all, it is 
 thought the only virtue it possesses rests in the sul- 
 phur. Those who might feel disposed to try this 
 preparation should not attempt to vary the propor- 
 tions of the ingredients, for a given weight of sulphur 
 will combine with the same weight of lime, and with 
 no more. 
 
 To save the trouble of inventing and trying other 
 methods for curing the vine-disease, I will here men- 
 tion a few that have been fairly tried in France and 
 found to be failures : 
 
 1. Painting the old wood, after stripping off the 
 loose bark, with a solution of sulphate of copper, four 
 pounds of the sulphate to one hundred pounds of 
 water. 
 
Preparations and Mixtures. 59 
 
 2. Painting with an alkaline, soapy liquid, envelop- 
 ing as active agent either arsenious acid, or a salt of 
 arsenic, or sulphuret of soda. 
 
 3. Coal tar, smeared on the old wood after strip- 
 ping off the bark. 
 
 4. Whitewash. 
 
 5. Washing the fruit with soap-suds. 
 
 6. Fumigating under a cover with burning sulphur. 
 
 7. Quicklime, ashes, plaster, and other kinds of dust. 
 
 8. Scorching or singing the vines after winter prun- 
 ing by means of torches. 
 
 9. Scalding with hot water, at the above epoch. 
 
 10. Brushing the surface of the fruit. 
 
 11. Burying the vine. 
 
 12. Pruning early. 
 
 13. Pruning late. 
 
 14. Pinching the buds. 
 
 15. Layering the entire vine. 
 
 16. Layering the branches only. 
 
 17. Grafting. 
 
 18. Different kinds of manures. 
 
 19. Painting with potato-glue mixed with sulphur. 
 Many of the above, it should be remarked, had a 
 
 measurable success, but none were found fit to adopt 
 in practice. Layering the whole vine, I am led to 
 think, might succeed with some varieties, and in fa- 
 
60 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 vorable soils and situations. I found the people of 
 Burgundy and Champagne thinking favorably of it, 
 and disposed to attribute their exemption from the 
 disease to their mode of cultivation, which involves 
 layering ; but those are cold vine-districts. 
 
Implements Proper to Use. 
 
 61 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 IMPLEMENTS proper to use. 
 
 HPIIE Bellows, of simple construction, invented by 
 -*- M. Vergnes, is the most approved implement yet 
 discovered. It has been improved upon by M. de la 
 Vergne, and the improvements patented. 
 
 Its dimensions are those of a common kitchen bel- 
 lows. The boards are of poplar, two fifths of an inch 
 thick, and well seasoned. There is no metal about it, 
 except the tin pipe (or nozzle), and the tacks which 
 fasten on the leather. It is thus seen to be very light, 
 a most important consideration. 
 
 In the middle of the upper board is a round hole 
 one inch and a half in diameter, to which is fitted a 
 stopper attached by a cord to the bellows. 
 
62 
 
 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 The pipe is in one piece, regularly curved, or in 
 several pieces jointed with solder to form the proper 
 turn. The outside end, or mouth, is covered with a 
 wire-gauze sieve of tinned wire, whose meshes are a 
 twelfth of an inch square, giving 144 of them to the 
 square inch. Round this sieve is a trumpet-shaped 
 addition, with openings in the sides, forming around 
 the sieve a sort of little railing to protect it against 
 any dampness which may be upon the vines. 
 
 Of M. de la Yergne's improvements, the most im- 
 portant is that which protects the leather from de- 
 struction through corrosion by the sulphur or other 
 material used. Another regulates the quantity of the 
 charge, and another still the volume of the discharge. 
 
 A canvas Bag, fitted with a tin discharge-pipe, and 
 large enough to hold four or five pounds of sulphur, 
 is hung round the neck, and carries the supply with 
 which to renew the charge of the bellows as often as 
 that is exhausted. 
 
Implements Pkopee to Use. 
 
 63 
 
 If, however, two or three are engaged in the work, 
 it is greatly expedited by adding to them a boy, 
 whose duty shall be that of "powder-monkey." He 
 will be kept busy by giving him three spare bellows 
 to charge with sulphur from a stationary supply, and 
 carry them to the men, receiving in return their 
 empty ones again to be filled. In such case no bag 
 is needed. 
 
 The Dredge-box is made of tin, in different forms, 
 two of which are represented below. The smaller 
 end, into which the sulphur is introduced, closes with 
 a snugly-fitting cap or cover. The large end has a 
 double bottom of tin pierced with very fine holes, 
 through which the sulphur is to be shaken out ; and 
 there are also a few cross-pieces of iron wire fixed 
 about an inch above the upper one of the two plates 
 
64 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 forming the double bottom, and which serve to break 
 up the lumps. I have seen very good dredge-boxes 
 of American make, with bottoms of fine brass-wire 
 gauze. I thought these too fine, and removed one of 
 them ; but it might be well to retain the double sieve, 
 though making the upper one coarser than the other. 
 The meshes of the one should measure about one 
 twelfth of an inch across, and of the other about one 
 twenty -fourth. The length of such boxes is from 
 eight to ten inches, and the diameters from three to 
 four inches. 
 
 The dredge-box is common in most of the vine- 
 countries of Europe, and, though a good deal more 
 wasteful of sulphur than the bellows, is useful for 
 many purposes where the latter would not work 
 well ; as, for instance, to sulphur in May, when the 
 young shoots are quite small, or late in summer, 
 when, as sometimes happens, only the fruit-bunches 
 need the operation, or to use for branches of un- 
 staked vines which droop on the ground. 
 
 The tufted Dredge-box is the same just described, 
 except that it has the addition of a tuft made of wool- 
 en yarn, four inches long, fastened to the larger end, 
 which tuft receives the sulphur as it issues from the 
 box, and sifts and disperses it in finer dust than would 
 be shaken out but for its interposition. Mares con 
 
Implements Proper to Use. 65 
 
 siders the tufted box an improvement on the other, 
 of which he has a poor opinion ; while De la Yergne 
 thinks it good for little or nothing, and praises the 
 other. Both kinds are used in Europe, and both 
 should be tried here. 
 
 A little Brush, formed of a bunch of coarse bris- 
 tles tied together, should be carried with the bellows, 
 to keep the sieve at its mouth free and open. 
 
 Other implements have been invented besides those 
 I have described, especially bellows mounted with dif- 
 ferent sorts of tin boxes and funnels, which, after be- 
 ing tried and condemned elsewhere, have come across 
 the water to plague the few of us who have had en- 
 terprise enough to try the sulphur - cure, and have 
 helped such to make failures. I have tried many of 
 them, and read and heard of others. Their faults are : 
 Sieves, often double ones, quite too fine ; mouths too 
 contracted ; valves to draw in the air, which, always 
 coming in by one way and going out by another, inev- 
 itably packs the dust against the meshes of the sieve, 
 instead of which the machine should breathe in and. 
 blow out through the same hole, thereby continually 
 cleansing the meshes as the Yergnes does; compli- 
 cated construction, with its easily imagined difficul- 
 ties ; heaviness ; weak construction, which, in connec- 
 tion with the tendency to clog, involving the need of 
 
QQ The Sulphur-Cuke. 
 
 frequent shakings, makes them soon shake to pieces ; 
 prices twice or thrice equal to that of the simpler and 
 better article. In short, they are well adapted not 
 to do the work, but to wear the muscles, tear the 
 nerves, and exhaust the patience of him who handles 
 them. Until some genius shall invent precisely the 
 right thing, the Vergnes bellows and the dredge-box 
 are the only implements to use. 
 
Weather for Sulphuring. 67 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 WEATHER SUITABLE FOR SULPHURING. 
 
 ONLY in the greatest emergency would it do to 
 sulphur vines while it rained. I know it has 
 been recommended, and is even practiced in the cold- 
 er grape regions of Europe, to perform the operation 
 early in the day, in order that the dew on the lower 
 side of the leaves shall cause the powder to stick 
 there ; but such is by no means the practice in those 
 hotter countries where the disease is strong. The sul- 
 phur, being insoluble in water, acts on the disease only 
 in the form of vapor, and it will not turn to vapor ex- 
 cept in a heat equal to about 68° Fahrenheit. There 
 is no use in putting it on unless the thermometer 
 shows that temperature to exist in the vineyard at the 
 time it is put on, or afterward and before it is blown 
 or washed away by wind or rain. Fortunately, a 
 greater heat is required to bring the mildew into life 
 than to produce the vapor which destroys it. As 
 much as two or three hours at least of the right tern- 
 
68 The Sulphite- Cure. 
 
 perature are needed to make the remedy take effect ; 
 and, if a considerable rain should fall before such 
 time has elapsed, the work must be done over again 
 within two or three days afterward. After the leaves 
 have grown large enough to shelter the fruit, and to 
 some extent each other, as in late June, such a re- 
 newal becomes less important. 
 
How to Conduct the Work. 69 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOW TO CONDUCT THE WORK. 
 
 fT^HE dredge-box is of course worked by shaking 
 -*- the sulphur out of it. Care should be taken not 
 to overload it, nor to dredge too much powder on a 
 given surface, the liability to an extravagant expendi- 
 ture of material being the chief objection to this im- 
 plement. In other respects, the rules given below for 
 using the bellows sufficiently instruct in the use of 
 the dredge-box. 
 
 The proprietor must first learn how to blow the 
 bellows,. and then teach his assistants. The motions 
 of the handles must be short and quick, and not long 
 and slow ; they must also be regular, and, so far as 
 can be, uninterrupted. When operating on a vine 
 from the top downward, the cessation of motion as 
 the bottom is reached is apt to clog the pipe. This 
 is corrected by briskly shaking the instrument on re- 
 commencing. In whatever position it is held, it need 
 not get clogged if, while changing direction, the quick, 
 
70 The Sttlphur-Cuke. 
 
 short motions are uninterruptedly continued. The ob- 
 ject to be kept in view is to put a little of the sulphur 
 every where, but not a great deal any where. "The 
 work is well done" says Mares, " when, on taking a 
 leaf or fruit hunch, and holding it against the light, 
 numerous grains of sulphur, no matter how small, 
 are seen to cover all points of the surface. The work 
 is ill done, on the contrary, when the vine or the soil 
 at its foot show lumps or patches of the material." 
 
 De la Yergne says : "A workman who handles his 
 bellows well disperses the sulphur every where equal- 
 ly, and the vines he has gone over are perfectly well 
 covered, while, at the same time, one who looked at 
 them in passing would not discover, except by the 
 smell, they had been sulphured at all." 
 
 It is best always to begin by blowing from the bot- 
 tom of the vine upward to the top, all the while throw- 
 ing the sulphur under the leaves and toward the centre, 
 and then proceeding from top to bottom, all the while 
 throwing the sulphur on the upper sides of the leaves, 
 and so all round the plant. The workman should 
 walk entirely around each vine as he dusts it ; or if, 
 it being on a trellis, he can not do tins, he should pass 
 down the line, sulphuring on one side as he goes, and 
 then pass up again, doing the same on the opposite 
 side. The motions for each plant should be the same, 
 
How to Conduct the Work. 71 
 
 so that, after a time, a habit of regularity and exacti- 
 tude may be acquired that will insure thoroughness 
 and avoid omissions. The negligence of workmen is 
 the frequent cause of partial sulphurings being need- 
 ed to cure particular vines on which the disease was 
 imperfectly cured, so that, in a few days, it breaks out 
 afresh. 
 
 The workman should keep his eye on the clouds of 
 dust he blows from his bellows, to see how they drift 
 and where they lodge, and so manage with regard to 
 distance, and position, and the course of the wind, as 
 that they shall go where they are wanted. 
 
 It is a great fault to overcharge the bellows. A 
 pound is the most that should go in at one time. He 
 must also acquire the habit of knowing when all has 
 been expended and the time has come to load again. 
 
 If, as sometimes happens, sulphur-dust is found to 
 hurt the eyes of the workmen, they must be furnished 
 with goggles, such as stone-cutters often wear. Out- 
 side shirts or blouses of close cotton or linen stuff 
 should also be supplied them, to protect their clothes. 
 Care should be taken to so instruct and encourage 
 them at the outset that they do not take an early dis- 
 gust, which will make them either quit the work or 
 do it negligently. Properly equipped, and taught, 
 and encouraged, they will soon find the work to be 
 
72 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 not at all unpleasant ; whereas, if clumsy, heavy im- 
 plements are put in their hands, to weigh down their 
 arms, to worry them by frequently becoming obstruct- 
 ed or getting out of repair, or with holes in them 
 through which the dust blows out backward, or if left 
 to find out for themselves how to meet all the little 
 difficulties which are apt to beset every new begin- 
 ning, they will be like to leave you suddenly in the 
 most pressing exigency that can come upon a vine- 
 grower. 
 
Peopee Times foe Sulphueing. 73 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF THE PROPER TIMES FOR SULPHURING. 
 
 TTNDOUBTEDLY the true principle is to sulphur 
 *^ the vines as early as the disease appears, and 
 again as often as it reappears. But, in order to do 
 this, we must be able to recognize the appearance of 
 the disease, and, furthermore, to know of its approach 
 a little while before it invades the whole vineyard, 
 for it works quickly. And although, in the beginning 
 of our experience, few of us will be able to discern in 
 season the signs of warning, and must rely on sulphur- 
 ing at stated times — the rules for which I will pres- 
 ently give — yet it is proper we should at once begin 
 to learn how to recognize the presence of the disease, 
 and how to get warning of its approach. 
 
 HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE PRESENCE OF THE MlLDEW. 
 
 —It is only with the first stage of the disease that we 
 have to do, for all which comes afterward is but the 
 decay in different forms, by wilting, cracking, rotting, 
 etc., which results from the first stage, and it is only 
 
 D 
 
74: The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 in that stage sulphur or any other remedy can do 
 jrood. On the leaves, stalks, and fruit-bunches there 
 will come spots of what appears to the naked eye as 
 only a fine white powder, but which, examined under 
 a microscope, prove to be hosts of little fungi (mush- 
 rooms). At first they may be brushed off with the 
 finger, without leaving on the surface where they 
 rested any injury or appearance of injury ; but, if al- 
 lowed to remain long enough, will throw down little 
 claws, which will pierce and grapple to the outer skin, 
 and, by thus wounding it, cause all the decay which 
 renders mildew such an affliction to the vine. Most 
 American vines are so covered with down in every 
 part, there is some risk an unpracticed observer may 
 sometimes mistake it for the powder which reveals 
 the presence of the little innumerable mushrooms in 
 question. Where the mass of them is considerable, 
 as I have found it on one of the new hybrids, the 
 musty odor exhaled, and which French writers all 
 mention as being peculiar to the oidium, can be easily 
 recognized, though not so easily forgotten. Some- 
 times, too, we may be deceived by fine cobwebs fresh- 
 ly woven, or even by spots of dust splashed upon the 
 lower leaves by rain. 
 
 To get Warning of the Approach of Oidium, it 
 is the custom in Europe to establish in each vineyard 
 
P kopek Times for Sulphuring. 75 
 
 several " Ceps moniteurs" as they are called, or sig- 
 nal vines, as we will term them ; for, whenever a gen- 
 eral attack impends, certain individual vines will be 
 observed to catch the disease a few days in advance 
 of the great body of their own variety ; and as differ- 
 ent varieties take the disease at different times and in 
 different ways, therefore each variety must have its 
 own signal vines. We should look for such in de- 
 pressed places — on the borders of alleys, under the 
 shade of trees, or where cold and damp exhalations 
 come from some adjoining woods or swampy ground. 
 When discovered and well tested, they should be 
 marked so as to be easily found. 
 
 Having established proper signal vines, the ap- 
 proach of danger can always afterward be known by 
 simply watching them, without the need of going over 
 the whole vineyard. As soon as any of them give 
 warning, all the vines of their variety should be sul 
 phured without delay. But first the signal vines 
 themselves should receive a thorough operation, in 
 order that another and false alarm do not too early 
 follow in consequence of their not being radically 
 cured ; and for the same reason, in serious cases, 
 they may need a second operation a few days later. 
 
 Until we shall have learned well how to recognize 
 the presence of the mildew, and have established our 
 
76 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 signal vines, we shall be obliged to rely on sulphur- 
 ing at certain fixed times, as at first they were obliged 
 to do in France, and as new beginners there are still 
 advised to do. In such case the recommendation of 
 Mr. Mares is to sulphur regularly once in every twen- 
 ty days , beginning as soon as the young shoots are 
 two inches long, and continuing until the changes of 
 color in August tell that the ripening process has be- 
 gun in the fruit, which saves it from farther danger. 
 This is the simple rule I followed during the season 
 of 1869, and which effectually saved my crop. 
 
 M. De la Vergne recommends novices such as we 
 to sulphur, first, just as blossoming is about to begin; 
 secondly, as soon as blossoming has ended — two epochs 
 which in his district occur, the first between May 20th 
 and June 10th, and the second between June 20th 
 and July 10th — and thirdly, toward the end of July, 
 when the August growth begins, terminating at the 
 same epoch with the rule Mares gives, for a sulphur- 
 ing late in July will ordinarily save the fruit until 
 ripening time. These three operations, he thinks, will 
 generally prove sufficient. It will be seen they are 
 separated one from another by thirty days, or there- 
 about. 
 
 Mr. Du Brieuil, in his able work on vineyard cul- 
 ture — which no American vine-grower should be with- 
 
Proper Times for Sulphuring. 77 
 
 out — gives a third rule, not intended, however, like 
 the two just given, to suit the case of new beginners 
 in the practice of the cure, but which is still worth 
 quoting here. It is this: Sulphur once when the 
 young shoots are only six inches long ; a second time 
 during blossoming ; a third time when the fruit has 
 grown to one third its full size ; and as often besides 
 as the signal vines give warning of disease. 
 
 Another rule, not a rule of stated times, like those 
 of Mares and De la Yergne, but, like the one last 
 given, intended for persons experienced in the sul- 
 phur-cure, is prescribed by another very respectable 
 authority. It is this: Give one sulphuring fifteen 
 days before blossoming ; a second during its continu- 
 ance ; and a third fifteen days after its close ; besides 
 others as often between times or afterward as the sig- 
 nal vines show the disease to be at hand. 
 
 It will be perceived each of these four rules makes 
 blossom-time the governing epoch — the point from 
 which to count, and thus each is based not merely on 
 the time (24 days) the oidium requires to reproduce 
 itself, but also on certain stages in the growth of the 
 vine itself which seem favorable to develop that fun- 
 gus. As regards our mildew, it also seems very much 
 influenced in its comings and goings by the stage of 
 growth of the vine, as all who have observed it will 
 
78 The Sulp hue-Cure. 
 
 admit. How apt it is, for instance, to appear about 
 the time when the berries are just formed, and again 
 when they have reached one third or half their full 
 size. 
 
 Thus we have, to aid us in watching our vineyards 
 and in studying the nature of our enemy, a knowl- 
 edge, first, of the time needed for the fungus to repro- 
 duce itself ; and, secondly, of the times when the state 
 of the vine invites . its attacks. We also know the 
 kind of weather most suited to its development, name- 
 ly, hot and dry succeeding to terms of rain. And now 
 let us survey the field of our operations with a view 
 to discovering the rules to follow with our own some- 
 what peculiar vines. From the first putting forth of 
 the young shoots in spring down to the end of vint- 
 age and the time of leaf-fall, grape-vines are liable to 
 attacks of mildew. This period let us divide into 
 three — the first extending from the awakening of veg- 
 etation until blossom-time ; the second reaching from 
 then until the time when the fruit, beginning its 
 changes of color, shows ripening-time to have come ; 
 and the third lasting from then till the end of the 
 season. 
 
 First Period. — In Europe, owing to the delicate 
 nature of their vine-foliage, every considerable devel- 
 opment of oi'dium on leaf or stalk requires attention 
 
Proper Times for Sulphuring. 79 
 
 and recourse to the remedy almost as urgently as if 
 the fruit itself were attacked. With American vines 
 it is quite different. Excepting, perhaps, the Dela- 
 ware, the leaves and stalks of our leading varieties 
 seem nearly invulnerable to mildew. I have known 
 it to fasten on the foliage of a vineyard of Catawbas, 
 Ives, and Concords, and work there undisturbed for 
 six or seven weeks without seriously hurting its 
 growth or impairing its usefulness, if, indeed, leaves 
 could be said to have any use when the fruit they 
 were intended to nourish and ripen was rapidly rot- 
 ting away. A week of such work on European vines 
 would pretty surely have turned them yellow or 
 stripped them bare. This peculiar hardiness of ours 
 is due, possibly, to the toughness of the leaves, and 
 the down which so thickly covers and protects both 
 stalks and leaves. 
 
 The American grape-grower, then, being relieved 
 of any fear lest a great and sudden calamity surprise 
 him during the period now being considered, there 
 can be no good reason for beginning operations un- 
 der the twenty-day rule of Mares until blossoming 
 time. But, whichever rule we follow, a good look-out 
 should be kept, and, if signs of mildew actually ap- 
 pear, a sulphuring should be given to the infected 
 vines at least. 
 
80 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 The approach of blossom time brings us toward the 
 close of the first period, and to the moment when it 
 will be necessary to decide between the two rules first 
 above given, namely, the twenty-day rule of Mares, 
 which, modified as above, prescribes one of the sul- 
 phurings to be given at blossom time, and the others 
 to come every twenty days thereafter, and the thirty- 
 day rule of De la Yergne, who tells us to begin just 
 before blossom time, to repeat just after it has ended, 
 and repeat again about the end of July. One says, 
 " Sulphur your vines while the blossoms are open, 
 whether any disease be present or not ; it will aid in 
 the process and increase the product." The other 
 tells us, " Do no such thing unless there is disease to 
 be cured." Which authority ought we to follow? 
 Evidently neither exclusively until the method of 
 each has been tried, carefully, observantly, and fre- 
 quently. 
 
 Following the thirty-day rule, and supposing no 
 actual invasion of mildew to have happened, we give 
 our first sulphuring at that stage of growth of the 
 fruit-buds which shows the blossoms are about to 
 open. As to the necessity or utility of beginning 
 thus early, we are as yet too ignorant of the mildew's 
 doings during this first period to know. The wise 
 principle, however, which tells us to check all disease 
 
Pkopee Times foe Sulphuring. 81 
 
 in its earliest attacks, is by Du Brieuil, expressly ap- 
 plied to the case of oidium ; and I well remember a 
 neighbor who sulphured a part only of his vines be- 
 fore blossoming, and then sulphured all of them aft- 
 erward, told me those which received but one opera- 
 tion did not so completely escape as those which got 
 two. 
 
 The Second Period begins with the opening of the 
 blossoms — the time, according to Mares' s rule, for 
 giving the first stated sulphuring. It should be done 
 while blossoming is at the height, and certainly be- 
 fore any of the more precocious vines have got 
 through and begun to form their fruit. The first 
 stated sulphuring, whether performed before blos- 
 soms open, as De la Yergne directs, or after they are 
 open, as Mares directs, should be a complete one, 
 covering the whole vine except old wood, regardless 
 of the presence or absence of mildew, and should be 
 performed with a bellows. In the case of Norton's 
 Seedlings, or other varieties peculiarly sensitive to sul- 
 phur, some of the mixtures before mentioned might 
 be used, or, what might do better and be equally safe, 
 very fine sulphur, thinly but thoroughly spread, as has 
 been said before. 
 
 All other sulphurings might be confined to the 
 fruit-bunches alone, unless other parts be actually 
 D2 
 
82 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 mildewed, or the signal vines show them to be on the 
 point of being attacked, in either of which two last 
 cases the whole vine, in all its parts, should receive a 
 sulphuring. Whenever -the fruit-bunches alone are 
 sulphured, it should be done with a dredge-box. 
 
 The practice of sulphuring the fruit-buds without 
 the rest of the vine, although not sanctioned by any 
 thing I have read in Mares or De la Yergne, is never- 
 theless distinctly authorized by Mr. Du Brieuil, who 
 recommends us to do the last sulphuring upon the 
 fruit-bunches only, and with a dredge-box. 
 
 There will be cases in this country where the mal- 
 ady, leaving the fruit-bunches untouched, will attack 
 only the leaves, or the stalks, or both. In such cases, 
 if we sulphur at all, we should operate on all parts, 
 the fruit-bunches as well as the others, for while we 
 are about it we may as well include the whole vine. 
 But must we always sulphur in such cases ? That is 
 a question we can not answer to-day; nevertheless, 
 let us consider it. 
 
 Considering, then, how the toughness and downy 
 coating peculiar to our American vines seems to sep- 
 arate the fate of their leaves and stalks from that of 
 their fruit, so that the fruit may be attacked and the 
 body of the vine escape, or the body be attacked and 
 the fruit escape, the question is whether, while faith- 
 
Proper Times for Sulphuring. 83 
 
 fully watching for and promptly attending to all at- 
 tacks upon the fruit-bunches, we may in any measure 
 neglect attacks which confine themselves to other 
 parts, and, if so, in what measure may we so neglect 
 them % 
 
 On the one hand, we know that attacks of mildew 
 will often pass away of themselves without any treat- 
 ment, which are cases of spontaneous cure, as they are 
 called in France. And in this country we may ex- 
 pect, for the reasons above given, that such attacks, if 
 confined to the stalks and leaves, may continue for 
 several days, and, unlike what happens in France, pass 
 off without having inflicted any serious injury upon 
 those parts, and without hurting the fruit at all. On 
 the other hand, we know disease breeds disease, and 
 that, if mildew is allowed to range unchecked over 
 the foliage, there may be danger of its falling sud- 
 denly upon the fruit between one sulphuring of the 
 latter and another. We know, too, that every consid- 
 erable injury sustained by the body of the vine must 
 in some measure affect every member of it. But, 
 though it would look like bad husbandry to tolerate 
 in any degree the presence of the pest, yet economy 
 must not be forgotten, and if time and practice prove 
 it safe to spare any considerable portion of the cost 
 and trouble of sulphuring, then time and practice will 
 have borne valuable fruit. 
 
84 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 
 
 The completion of the blossoming process and the 
 formation of the young berries bring us to the point 
 of time when De la Yergne's second stated sulphur- 
 ing must be given. To help to understand what he 
 means by designating for the first operation " the mo- 
 ment when blossoming is about to begin," and for 
 the second that "when it has just finished," bear in 
 mind that he places these two moments thirty days 
 apart. This will, in the climate where he writes (the 
 neighborhood of Bordeaux), bring his second sulphur- 
 ing to the 1st of July as an average date ; and he 
 sets his third sulphuring for about the 1st of August. 
 In our own grape region, the epochs he indicates will 
 generally be separated by the same interval of thirty 
 days. Now, however reasonable it may seem thus to 
 base our operations as to time upon the approach of 
 those stages in the vine's growth which seem to favor 
 the development of the disease, and however our own 
 experience thus far seems to confirm the opinion that 
 those stages are the same with our vines, and their 
 mildew as with foreign vines and their oidium, yet 
 we should not forget there is a law of growth con- 
 trolling the reproduction of the fungus — in Europe 
 at least — by which it is able to reappear in twenty- 
 four days after being suppressed. So it would seem 
 prudent in such as adopt the thirty-day rule to look 
 
Proper Times for Sulphuring. 85 
 
 out well during the last six days of the time, and 
 be prepared, if disease appear, to meet it with the 
 remedy. 
 
 In following the twenty-day rule it would be eco- 
 nomical to begin as late during blossom time as safety 
 permitted, and also to prolong the intervals to about 
 twenty-four days, in order that the third operation 
 should come late enough in July for its effects to ex- 
 tend to ripening time, and thus one sulphuring be 
 saved. But weather is uncertain. Delays are dan- 
 gerous. If we undertake to follow a rule, it is better 
 to go through with it. I well remember the only 
 sign of mildew I found on any of my vines during 
 the season of 1869 was on some of them which the 
 intervention of two holidays and two days of rain 
 compelled me to defer sulphuring till the twenty-sixth 
 day; therefore the beginner would do well to allow 
 of no postponement that could be avoided. 
 
 If, after reading the above, any one shall ask why 
 it is I counsel for trial a method which extends the 
 intervals between sulphurings to thirty days, I an- 
 swer that I rely much on the epochs of the vine's 
 growth which De la Vergne chooses for his sulphur- 
 ings. They seem to come opportunely to meet the 
 disease at its chosen times for appearing, and so to be 
 capable of a more complete effect than if given be- 
 
 
86 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 fore or after such times. M. Mares himself counts 
 much on the opportuneness of the sulphuring, as well 
 that of blossom time as that of the last of July, and 
 only recommends the twenty-day practice to those in 
 the condition in which we of this country now find 
 ourselves, and who wish to secure certainty of result. 
 
 Thus we reach the close of our second period and 
 the safe end of our summer with three stated sulphur- 
 ings, or at the most four, according to the plan adopt- 
 ed. It is my belief that, in most seasons and with 
 most varieties, two of these sulphurings may be safe- 
 ly confined to the fruit-branches alone, and be done 
 with a dredge-box, and one only be needed that shall 
 include the whole vine and require a bellows ; name- 
 ly, the one at or about blossom time. Moreover, once 
 we shall be provided with proper signals, vineyards 
 in districts as favorably situated in respect to disease 
 as those of Medoc in France may usually escape, as 
 happens there, with but two stated sulphurings, and 
 perhaps one or two partial ones. What is here meant 
 by partial will be explained farther on. 
 
 Third Period. — After the grapes begin to change 
 color, though no fungus can hurt them, yet, if the 
 vines have been allowed to suffer frem neglected at- 
 tacks of mildew, the fruit will begin to rot and fall 
 just as it is becoming fully ripe — a trouble nothing 
 
Proper Times foe Sulphuring. 87 
 
 will help except a premature gathering to press. 
 Again, the as yet green fruit -stems may become 
 coated' with mildew, which, though unable to injure 
 the ripening fruit, may nevertheless pass into the 
 wine, and do much injury there ; and accumulations 
 of fungus on the leaves, even late in the season, will, 
 to say the least, do no good. Therefore it will some- 
 times happen that a sulphuring will be proper even 
 in the third period ; though, if the vines have been 
 kept healthy' and sound down to the end of July, it 
 will be very rare that any subsequent trouble can 
 come to them. 
 
 Partial Sulphuring. — Negligent workmen, bad 
 sulphur, or insufficient tools will often cause individ- 
 ual vines to fail of a cure. The fungus will perhaps 
 die down to the roots, but these will in a few days 
 sprout up with a new growth. Within four or five 
 days, therefore, after each general sulphuring of mil- 
 dewed vines, it will be proper to carefully search 
 through the vineyard for such cases, and renew the 
 operation. If the case be very serious, it would be 
 well to renew once more within five days after, or cut 
 the affected branches off and fling them away. 
 
88 The Sulphur- Cue 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 r |^HE Cost of Sulphuring. — The luxuriant vines 
 of Southern France require, in an average year, 
 from eighty to one hundred pounds of flour of sul- 
 phur to the acre, and from four to six days' labor to 
 put it on. The small, though closely-set vines of the 
 neighborhood of Bordeaux require, in an average 
 year, only about fifty pounds, but need the same 
 amount of labor. In this country the quantity need- 
 ed would be midway between the two, and the labor 
 would be about the same. In France sulphur costs 
 2 J to 2-J cents a pound for the finest and best; in 
 this country it costs over twice as much. With these 
 data, any one may easily compute the probable ex- 
 pense of saving his vines from destruction ; he will 
 not find it very dear. The finer the sulphur, the far- 
 ther it will go. Should we be able to obtain, in this 
 country, as fine an article as the best they use abroad, 
 the sieves of the bellows and dredge-boxes might be 
 reduced in size, to economize its expenditure. 
 

 Miscellaneous. 89 
 
 Cultivation.— Whatever tends to keep vines in 
 strong health helps them resist the disease, therefore 
 cultivation should be thorough and frequent enough 
 to secure such a condition. But manuring has a de- 
 cidedly bad effect when the substance used is not 
 well rotted. In every case freshly - manured vines 
 should not only be well cultivated, but also sulphured 
 with extra care. New earth spread about the roots 
 has a most excellent effect in helping to resist disease. 
 Where a vineyard is conveniently near a forest, leaf 
 mould should be preferred to every other kind of ma- 
 nure ; but where this is obtained from damp places, 
 it should, like swamp muck, be allowed to remain a 
 year in heaps, or properly treated with lime, before 
 being hauled on. 
 
 Drainage.— Infinite loss and discouragement have 
 come to American vine-growers from neglecting to 
 drain. In Europe it has been the custom, from time 
 immemorial, to drain in some form all vineyard soils 
 not naturally dry, or made so by being walled up in 
 terraces. In the beginning we were led to think 
 drainage unnecessary because we trenched our ground 
 very deep, which so loosened up even the toughest 
 clay that, for a while, it did very well; but in time it 
 relapsed to its former condition, and was as bad as 
 before. No clayey soil can, in the long, grow healthy 
 
90 The Sulphur-Cure. 
 
 vines unless properly drained — unless very thorough- 
 ly and carefully drained; arid, as most of our vine- 
 yards are of such soil, their owners had better aban- 
 don them if not prepared to make the needed expend- 
 iture. As a safeguard against black rot it is quite 
 indispensable, being, as before stated, the chief pre- 
 ventive to that affliction. 
 
 Restoring decayed Ylneyards. — Many vineyards 
 have become so exhausted by neglect, disease, and 
 want of drainage that something more must be done 
 for them than merely giving medicine. Proper means 
 should be taken to restore such, which means, however, 
 it is not the purpose of this little work to describe. 
 Most valuable directions will be found in M. Du 
 Brieuil's work on "Vineyard Culture," in Chapter 
 XII., on "Maintenance and Renewal of the Plants." 
 I have myself tried layering somewhat on the plan he 
 there advises, and like the result. Besides, layering, 
 though perhaps not reliable as a cure for mildew, cer- 
 tainly acts against the disease, and will materially as- 
 sist the sulphur in working its effect. 
 
 Peculiarly Susceptible. — Beyond question some 
 varieties will take the disease, as some will take the 
 black rot, much more readily than others. The Ca- 
 tawba has hitherto been the worst sufferer, and the 
 Isabella has escaped the best. But the Catawba is 
 
Miscellaneous. 91 
 
 worth saving, and the other is not. The Catawba has 
 got a worse name than it deserves. It has had the 
 misfortune to be the victim of all the mistakes of 
 new beginners in vine husbandly, and has been aban- 
 doned to the ravages of both mildew and rot till they 
 have gained a certain foothold on it. And yet it 
 seems to me it is very easily cured of mildew, how- 
 ever it may be with black rot. In France they have 
 established six categories of vines, arranged in order 
 of their susceptibility to the oidium. The Catawba 
 appears in the last category, as being, with the Isa- 
 bella, the least susceptible of all. From this it can 
 be imagined how much more fortunate we are than 
 vine -growers in that country, who, nevertheless, in 
 practice have little difficulty in combating the dis- 
 ease ; and from this we may infer, too, that if any of 
 our varieties have to be abandoned as incurable, it 
 will not be the Catawba, the King of the Cobblers. 
 If I may be allowed to predict, the varieties we shall 
 first be disposed to cast away are some of those now 
 counted among the indestructibles, honestly puffed 
 and believed in as such, because not old enough to 
 have come under the control of disease. 
 
 If, again, I should name the vine which I think 
 best able to resist disease, and which, even if attack- 
 ed, is most worthy of rescuing from its clutches, I 
 
92 The Sulphur- Cure. 
 
 would name the Norton's Virginia Seedling, whose 
 crystal - clear and garnet -red juice, full-bodied and 
 rich — whose " vinosity," " neat" flavor, and delicate 
 aroma merited and received at the hands of the jury 
 of the Paris Exhibition of 1867 the highest mark ac- 
 corded to any oft the ninety samples of American 
 wine w T hich I had the honor to present for their tast- 
 ing. As this vine puts forth at least ten days later, 
 and ripens at least ten days earlier than the Catawba, 
 and has, at the same time, a surplus of sugar, it is 
 adapted to a wide belt of our vine region, and is wor- 
 thy of trial in even our most northern districts. Wher- 
 ever planted, however, its fruit should be fully fer- 
 mented on the skin to make a red and not a pink 
 wine. 
 
 Sulphuring Apple and other Fruit -Trees. — 
 About the time of the appearance of the o'idium in 
 Europe, there came a crowd of other cryptogams, 
 which alighted on apple, peach, quince, and apricot 
 trees, as well as on clover, sainfoin, violets, roses, and 
 many other plants. They all made themselves known 
 by a whitish clust, the same to the naked eye as the 
 oidium, and worked similar evil effects ; but none of 
 them were identical with it, and it was found, on ex- 
 amination, that each species of plant had its own va- 
 riety of cryptogam, and, upon attempts being made 
 

 Miscellaneous. 93 
 
 to communicate that which fed on the vine to other 
 plants, however near to it in kind, the attempts all 
 failed. Nevertheless, each variety of cryptogam 
 yielded readily to sulphur, and it was applied with 
 great success to the fruit-trees especially. Doubtless 
 u this is what's the matter" with much of our fruit. 
 In fact, careful observers have, for some time past, 
 called attention to " mildew" as afflicting our peaches 
 and apples ; and that disease, with black rot, which 
 has spoiled the shape and quality of half the apples 
 we are eating at this present writing, in connection 
 with negligent cultivation, are reason enough for all 
 the prevailing lamentations over the decay of our or- 
 chards. 
 
 I thought I greatly improved the yield and quality 
 of my apples last year by sulphuring the trees while 
 in blossom. I hope others will try the remedy — as I 
 also will, and more seriously the next time — and ob- 
 serve and report the results. One application would 
 not, of course, test the full value of the system ; and 
 though, on the more robust fruit of the tree, destruc- 
 tion by disease will be less marked and less rapid than 
 on that of the vine, it would be no more than prudent 
 to sulphur once at blossom time, and as often after- 
 ward as signs of disease should appear; or else to sul- 
 phur, without regard to signs of disease, three times, 
 
94 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 
 
 somewhat following De la Vergne's thirty-day rule as 
 applied to the vine. My trees being young, I found 
 no difficulty in blowing on the sulphur with bellows 
 of ordinary size and shape ; but, for large* trees, the 
 nozzle should be elongated by one or more joints of 
 tin pipe, which was the expedient resorted to in 
 France. 
 Try it! 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 Page 
 
 Anthracnose , 27 
 
 Attenuations of sulphur 33 
 
 B. 
 
 Bag for carrying sulphur 62 
 
 Bellows for applying sulphur to vines 61 
 
 of American make 65 
 
 how to use 69 
 
 proper charge of sulphur for 71 
 
 Black rot 22 
 
 description of. 24 
 
 causes of. 24 
 
 characteristic features of. 26 
 
 weather favorable to produce it 26 
 
 its effects 26 
 
 not curable with sulphur 26 
 
 modes of preventing it 30 
 
 long known in Europe 27 
 
 Black sickness 27 
 
 Blossoming-time, sulphuring in 77, 80, 84 
 
 Brown rot (see gray rot). 
 
 Brush for cleaning sieve of implements 65 
 
 C. 
 
 Catawba grape 38, 90 
 
 Ceps moniteurs 75 
 
 Charbon.... 27 
 
96 Index. 
 
 Page 
 
 Concord grape 37 
 
 Cracking of grapes affected by disease 19 
 
 Crambos 27 
 
 Crooked Lake grape district 38 
 
 Cultivation of vines as affecting disease 89 
 
 D. 
 
 Drainage, importance of. 89 
 
 as a preventive to black rot 30 
 
 Dredge-box for applying sulphur 63 
 
 tufted 64 
 
 how to use 69 
 
 E. 
 
 Erysephe the true name of the vine fungus 11 
 
 discovered long ago in America :. 20 
 
 E. 
 
 Failure of experiments with sulphur, causes of. 32 
 
 Falling off of grapes 22 
 
 Flour of sulphur 48, 52 
 
 how to distinguish ground sulphur from 54 
 
 Foliage, how affected by mildew 19 
 
 how affected by overdoses of sulphur 40 
 
 G. 
 
 Gray rot 19, 22, 25, 31 
 
 an effect of mildew 31 
 
 Ground sulphur 48, 51 
 
 how it may be made 53 
 
 how distinguished from flour of sulphur 54 
 
 important experiments with, in France 54 
 
 I. 
 
 Implements to use in sulphuring vines 61 
 
 Insects destroyed by sulphur 42 
 
Index. 97 
 
 L. 
 
 Page 
 
 Layering as a preventive 59 
 
 Lime and sulphur mixed, experiments with 54 
 
 liquid preparation of 57 
 
 M. 
 
 Manuring 89 
 
 Mildew 17 
 
 attacks only the under surfaces of the leaves 19 
 
 attacks of, late in the season 47 
 
 calfs eye one of the effects of. 22 
 
 doubts of its identity with oidium ... 17 
 
 effects of, on foliage 19 
 
 effects modified by peculiarities in the vine 1 8, 19, 79, 82 
 
 falling off of grapes one of its effects 22 
 
 gray (or brown) rot one of its effects. 1 9, 22, 31 
 
 howto recognize its presence 73 
 
 how to get warning of its approach 74 
 
 in what respects it seems to differ from oidium 18 
 
 in what respects resembling oidium.' 21 
 
 musty odor of. 74 
 
 no soil or variety can be called safe from it 36 
 
 time in which it can reproduce itself. 77 
 
 weather favorable to its development 78 
 
 Mixtures of sulphur with lime and other dusts 33 
 
 experiments with, in France 54 
 
 in liquid form 57 
 
 N. 
 
 Norton's Virginia Seedling Grapes, cracking of. 40 
 
 value of. 92 
 
 O. 
 
 Ohio Valley, early success of the grape in the 38 
 
 Oidium 11 
 
 attacks the leaf on both sides 19 
 
 doubts of its identity with mildew 17 
 
 E 
 
98 Index. 
 
 Page 
 
 Oidium, in what respects mildew differs from 18 
 
 in what respects mildew resembles 21 
 
 three new varieties of 16 
 
 time required for its reproduction 77, 84 
 
 various remedies for it in Europe 58 
 
 • 
 
 P. 
 
 Period first 78 
 
 second 81 
 
 third 86 
 
 R. 
 
 Rain closely following a sulphuring 68 
 
 Red-leaf, or rongeau 12 
 
 Rot (see black rot and gray, or brown rot). 
 
 S. 
 
 Scale for testing sulphur 49 
 
 Shale, sulphurous, of the Ohio Valley 38 
 
 Sieves of bellows 62, 65 
 
 Signal vines '. 75 
 
 Sulphur a cure for the vine disease 8 
 
 effects of an overdose of, on foliage 40 
 
 upon the vegetation of vines 41 
 
 upon insects 42 
 
 in the wine..... 45- 
 
 on the eyes of workmen 71 
 
 different preparations and mixtures of. 48 
 
 flour of. 4S 
 
 ground 48 
 
 test of quality of 49 
 
 of calchium, or sulphur, lime, and water 57 
 
 experiments with various mixtures of. 54 
 
 duty on 53 
 
 of American manufacture 53 
 
 how refined for grinding 53 
 
 proper charge of, in a bellows 71 
 
 Sulphur-cure in Europe 9 
 
Index. 99 
 
 Page 
 
 Sulphur-cure, reasons why not practiced in America 32 
 
 failure of experiments with, reasons for 32 
 
 'its discovery a result of science, not chance 36 
 
 Sulphuric acid in flour of sulphur 48 
 
 injurious to foliage 40 
 
 Sulphuring vines at blossom time 77 
 
 proper times for 73 
 
 Mares's twenty-day rule for 76 
 
 De la . Vergnes's rule for 76 
 
 Du Brieuil's rule for 76 
 
 another rule for 77 
 
 weather suitable for 67 
 
 how performed 69 
 
 how known to be well done 70 
 
 cost of 88 
 
 fruit-bunches only 81 
 
 propriety of. 82 
 
 partial 87 
 
 apples and other fruit trees 92 
 
 T. 
 
 Temperature at which sulphur vaporizes 67 
 
 Test of fineness of flour of sulphur and ground sulphur 48 
 
 V. 
 
 Vines, American, peculiarities of, in taking disease 1 8, 79 
 
 cultivation of 89 
 
 manuring of 89 
 
 Vineyards, restoring decayed 90 
 
 Vitis iEstavilis , 44 
 
 Vitis Labrusca 44 
 
 W. 
 
 Weather suitable for sulphuring vines 67 
 
 Wine, effect of sulphur on taste of 4o 
 
 Workmen in vineyards, how instructed 69 
 
 The End. 
 
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