[93] Tarr, R. S., Cornell (N. Y.) Exp. Sta. Bul., 109. 1896.
[94] Burke, R. T. Avon, and Marean, Herbert, Field Operations, Bureau of Soils, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 1901.
[95] Tarr, R. S., Cornell (N. Y.) Exp. Sta. Bul., 109. 1896.
[96] Burke, R. T. Avon, and Marean, Herbert, Field Operations, Bureau of Soils, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 1901.
[97] Elijah Fay was born in Southborough, Massachusetts, in 1781. He moved to Brocton, Chautauqua County, New York, in the fall of 1811. The early history of not only the viticulture but of the horticulture of the Chautauqua region is interwritten with that of the Fay family. Elijah Fay’s children and grandchildren inherited a love of horticulture from their ancestor and several of them, as mentioned in the text, have been noted for their horticultural work in this region. Lincoln Fay, a nephew of Elijah Fay, one of the first men to grow and sell grape vines in the region, originated the Fay currant which was afterwards introduced by him and his son Elijah H. Fay. Of the Fay family, noted in the annals of grape-growing in this region, only G. E. Ryckman and L. R. Ryckman, grandchild and great-grandchild of Elijah Fay, are now living. Elijah Fay lived to the ripe age of eighty, dying in 1860. His memory should be long cherished as one of the founders of the viticulture of New York.
[98] The writer is indebted to Mr. G. E. Ryckman of this firm, for the information given here.
[99] The Grape Belt, 16: No. 20, Feb. 26, 1907.
[100] The Grape Belt, 16: No. 20, Feb. 26, 1907.
[101] The grape-vine fidia (Fidia viticida Walsh) is a robust beetle, a quarter of an inch in length, brown in color but whitened by a thick covering of yellowish-white hairs. The beetle lays its eggs in the cracks and crevices of the bark of the grape vines well above ground. The eggs are produced in large numbers, often as many as several hundred to the vine. Upon hatching, the larvae quickly worm their way into the ground and begin to feed upon the fibrous roots of the vine, passing from these to the larger roots. Possibly the chief damage is done on the larger roots which are often entirely stripped of bark for a length of several feet. The larvae attain their full size, a half inch in length, by the middle of August, and then hibernate until the following June. The winter is spent in earthen cells. After about two weeks as pupae in June, the full grown beetles emerge from the ground and begin to feed upon the upper surface of the leaves, eating out the cellular tissue, thus skeletonizing the foliage. The adults disappear the succeeding August. The most efficient means of checking the fidia so far found is an application of an arsenical spray applied during the time the beetles are feeding on the foliage.
[102] Grape-vine flea-beetle (Haltica chalybea Ill.).—The adult insects are shining steel-blue flea-beetles measuring about one-fifth of an inch in length. They live during the winter under the bark of the old vines or in rubbish in the fields. They emerge from their winter quarters during the first warm days of spring, and feed upon the opening buds and young leaves. Egg-laying begins late in April or early in May. The eggs are placed singly near the buds or upon the leaves and hatch in about ten days. The young larvae are dark brown in color but soon become prominently marked with black dots and patches. They are full grown in from three to four weeks at which time they measure about a quarter of an inch in length. They feed on the leaves devouring only the soft parts at first, but finally eating irregular holes through the leaves. When ready to pupate they go a short distance into the ground. The adults emerge during the latter part of June or early in July. They probably feed during all of the summer, finally seeking shelter for the winter as above indicated.