Addresses — How to Raise Grapes. 171 



sour things, and think they can raise grapes, and will not be taught. 

 They are just like musicians; every fiddler thinks his own fiddle is 

 the best, and so with grape raisers; still I do as I did in Germany, 

 and as long as I raise good grapes I don't care whether pruning 

 hurts them or not. The testimony I have for my system is my 

 vineyard; when people come there in the fall and see my grapes they 

 are generally astonished. My vineyard is at McGregor. I have 

 about two hundred and fifty pole?. It is on the bluff, on the south- 

 west slope. I prefer that place because sometimes you have a 

 frost in May or June when the grapes have sprouted some ways, and 

 if you have them on the east side towards the rising sun they will 

 surely die, because the sun's rays will kill them after being frosted. 

 If you have a southwest slope, the sun will warm them gradually 

 and the frost will not hurt them. I have had good grapes on my 

 place, while others lost them all by the sudden outburst of the sun 

 warming ihem too quick. It is just like a half-frozen man; if you 

 put him into a warm room immediately, he will die sure, while if 

 you rub him with snow he may recover. It is the same thing with 

 a grape vine. Last summer I raised about half a crop, when others 

 lost about all they had because they had them on the southeast slope. 

 The sun killed them all; still about half of mine were killed also, 

 but they froze so hard it is a wonder that I saved any of them. In 

 this climate we can raise grapes as well as in California, and it is a 

 paying business. If I would sell mine, I could raise half a dollar's 

 worth on every pole, selling them at lour or five cents a pound; 

 still I do not raise any more than I need myself, though sometimes 

 I sell some. I always sell some on the first of September to show 

 them all that I am ahead of them anyhow, and keep ahead of them. 

 Another thing, we want to raise grapes here which ripen early; 

 grapes which become ripe on the first, or not later than the tenth or 

 the middle of September. As soon as grapes get soft or colored, frost 

 will not hurt them; but as long as they are green, frost will shrink 

 them up. 



We have another great fault in this country. Many people think 

 that as soon as grapes are black, or blue, or pink, they are ripe; but 

 they are greatly mistaken in that. They are only changing color 

 then to get ripe, and a Concord ought to hang four weeks before 

 it is really good, and if you let it hang five it will be better. The 

 Hartford is the only grape which is sweet as soon as it is colored; 



