The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1907-06-05
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Appointed Chairman OF the Coff1-
rnittee OH Grapes, Figs and 'Persim-
mons, l. communicated with the two
other members of the committee, Mr..
Bacon of Ormond, and Mr.. Steele of
Switzerland for their cooperation with
reports OF the northern part of the
state, where my experience with these
fruits has been nome. The require
ments of THESE fruits and their culture
have AIT previous meetings of the So
ciey been $50 we'll and ably discussed
that it would be only repetition OF
what Others have already said to- i'll
du1ge ON these points, and have,
therefore, limited myself to report
relative to Our experience with these
fruits ON the lower east coast.
The southeast end of 1.-THE peninsula has
been settled, ais you all we'll know, at
a comparatively recent date, and as
the settlers were attracted more by
the culture of CITRUS fruits and pine
apples, grapes, figs and persimrnons
have been practically neglected alto
gether AS a side issue to citrus, and
pineapple culture the majority of set
ulClS SCCIlI W uIdVC NdhCH up I1Op1SdA
FRUITS, such as n1angos, avocados, qua
stances have I found anyone planting
little systematic culture has been given
these fruits, and the following notes
have been made from very few plants
and not large paintings.
Of grapes, a number of Eastern
varieties, as well as virifera, or Cali
fornia grapes, have been tried The
experience of all who have tried grow
ing grapes is, that severe pruning is
Injurious, causing the VINE ito die back,
and this is no more praotised by those
who are acquainted with our local CON-
ditions. Most of the vines that [ have
noted of late are trained on a trellls,
or overhead, allowing the vines to
grow, pruning away only dead wood,
which system lis being practlsed ON
a trial vineyard at the Subtropica1
Laboratory. Our experience has only
confirmed that Of 'others, that the vine
fruit we'll the first two or three years,
and after that begin to die back and
set very little fruit The vigor and
adaptibility of the different varieties
varies greatly. The vinifera grape,
which has been more under my ob-
servation than the Eastern grapes, is
very much subject to attacks from
b1ackrot and mi1dew. Only by fire.
quent sprayings with Bordeaux mix
t1rre is it possible to obtain good fruit.
Again, the berries mature very uneven
ly in the punches, which tends to make
the fruit less salab1e, and I consider
it very doubtful whether WE will ever
find a vinifera grape that will prove
satisfactory I have not noted any
insect attacking the grape severely en-
ough to be called pest Mr. Thomas
Spence, Buer1a Vista, Florida, who has
had more experience with grapes in
the lower part of the state than any
other person [ know, writes me {:
"General1y speaking. I am, as you
know, through with trying vinifera
grapes. as I think the nnildew and
other fungoid troubles will NOT admit
of Our growing them succes sfu1ly. Last
year, as you know, was a very poor
one for grapes, and there were none
that coud be said to succeed The
year previous there were some nice
grapes ON Black Hamburg, Brighton,
Delaware. Duchess, and one of the
Rogers Hybrids, but I don't consider
that any of them have made the growth
this season to warrant us in expecting
any satisfactory results. They all seem
to die back without ripef1ing their
new wood properly, and they are very
caprlclous as to startling new growth
in the spring.
The scuppernong has not to nv
knowledge. been tried. The "Kev'
h,oc -