The grape vine sphynx will be found occasionally. It is a large, green worm, with black dots, and very voracious. Fortunately, it is not numerous, and can easily be found and destroyed.
There are also several caterpillars—the yellow bear, the hog caterpillar, and the blue caterpillar, which will feed upon the leaves. The only remedy I know against them is hand picking, but they have not as yet been very numerous, nor very destructive.
Wasps are sometimes very troublesome when the fruit ripens, stinging the berries and sucking the juice. A great many can be caught by hanging up bottles, with a little molasses, which they will enter, and get stuck in the molasses.
BIRDS.
These are sometimes very troublesome at the time of ripening, and especially the oriole is a "hard customer," as he will generally dip his bill into every berry; often ruining a fine bunch, or a number of them, in a short time. I have therefore been compelled to wage a war upon some of the feathered tribe, although they are my especial favorites, and I cannot see a bird's nest robbed. However, there are some who do not visit the vineyard, except for the purpose of destroying our grapes, and these can not complain if we "won't stand it any longer," but take the gun, and retaliate on them. The oriole, the red bird, thrush, and cat bird are among the number, and although I would like to spare the latter three, in thankful remembrance of many a gratuitous concert, the first must take his chance of powder and lead, for the little rascal is too aggravating. A few dry bushes, raised above the trellis will serve as their resting place before they commence their work of destruction, where they can be easily killed.
FROSTS.
Although our winters are seldom severe enough to destroy the hardy varieties, yet they will often fatally injure such half hardy varieties as the Herbemont and Cunningham, and the severe winter of 1863,-'64, killed even the Catawba, down to the snow line, and severely injured the Norton's Virginia, and even the Concord. Fortunately, such winters occur but rarely, and even in localities where the vines are often destroyed by the severe cold in winter, this should deter no one from growing grapes, as, with very little extra labor he can protect them, and bring them safely through the winter. I always cover my tender varieties, in fact, all that I feel not quite safe to leave out, even in severe winters, in the following manner: The vines are properly pruned in the fall; then select a somewhat rainy day, when the canes will bend more easily. One man goes through the rows, and bends the canes to the ground along the trellis, while another follows with the spade, and throws earth enough on them to hold them in their places. Afterwards, I run a plough through the rows, and cover them up completely. In the spring when all danger from frost is over, I take a so-called spading fork, and lift the vines. The entire cost of covering an acre of grape vines and taking them up again in spring, will not exceed $10; surely a trifling expense, if we can thereby ensure a full crop.
We have thus a protection against the cold in winter, but I know none against early frosts, in fall, and late spring frosts; and the grape grower should therefore avoid all localities where they are prevalent. The immediate neighborhood of large streams, or lakes, will generally save the grape grower from their disastrous influence; and our summers, here, along the banks of the Missouri river, are in reality full two months longer than they are in the low, small valleys, only four to six miles off. Let the grape grower, in choosing a locality, look well to this, and avoid the hills along these narrow valleys. Either choose a location sufficiently elevated, to be beyond their influence, or, what is better still, choose it on the bluffs above our large streams; where the atmosphere, even in the heat of summer, will never become too dry for the health of the vine. It is a sad spectacle to see the hopes of a whole summer frustrated by one cold night; to see the vines which promised an abundant crop but the day before, browned and wilted beyond all hopes of recovery, and the cheerless prospect before you, that it may occur every spring; or to see the finest crop of grapes, when just ripening, scorched and wilted by just one night's frost, fit for nothing but vinegar. Therefore, look well to this, when you choose the site of your vineyard, and rather pay five times the price for a location free from frost, than for the richest farm along the so-called creek bottoms, or worse still, sloughs of stagnant water.