Winter Meeting. 303 



GRAPE CULTURE. 



(J.G. Ruder, Affton.) 



By your request 1 will give you what ideas and experience on grape 

 culture I have. Previous to the year 1901, 1 had not been extensively 

 engaged in raising grapes. Aly vineyard is situated on a southeastern 

 slope, the soil of which is a good loam, with clay subsoil, which I notice 

 gives a good healthy foliage and insures good large bunches of grapes. 

 My past method has been to train the canes to three wires, as the old 

 method was, but my experience with this has been that the grapes are 

 subject to being scalded by the sun. My new method, as shown by ac- 

 companying cut, will keep the bunches more shaded and allow the better 

 circulation of air. Severe pruning is essential to insure a good crop. 

 As to fertilizing, I have used none other than well decomposed manure. 

 Good cultivation is as necessary as the planting of best varieties. By a 

 thorough cultivation we can keep the moisture in the ground for a 

 longer period and thereby give them a longer time in which to be 

 harvested. As to spraying, will say I have not used a spray on my 

 fruit, but find that it will have to be done to bear a perfect crop. 



The oriole has been my greatest enemy in destroying grapes. Not 

 like other birds will it take two or three berries from the bunch and de- 

 part with them, but, instead, it will puncture and drain the juice from 

 as many grapes as it possibly can. Sometimes a single oriole can de- 

 stroy in a day every grape on two vines, if he is allowed to go unmo- 

 lested. Many persons believe that this damage is done by bees, but by 

 my experience a bee will never attack a grape unless it has first been 

 punctured by a bird. The white grapes, however, are rarely attacked 

 by birds. I cannot account for this in any other way than by assuming 

 that the birds do not see the bunches, or, seeing them, do not recognize 

 them as grapes of just as good a quality as the blacks. 



Varieties most profitably planted in this vicinity are Worden, 

 Moore's Early, Concord, Niagara and Brighton, and I may add Norton's 

 Virginia also. All above mentioned varieties have yielded from twenty 

 to thirty pounds of fancy grapes per vine. 



So as to my experience, grape growing is a very profitable crop. 



