SUMMER MEETING. 71 



IDEAL MARKET AND HOME GRAPE. 

 BY J. S. WOODWAKD, LOCKPOKT, N. T. 



Nothing can be more fallacious and harmful than the spread of the sentiment, 

 so often expressed, that any grape which the people will buy is good enough for 

 the market. Without a doubt grape-growing, as a business, has been seriously 

 injured by the introduction of that miserable class of grapes of which the 

 Champion is a type. It should be the study of the grape grower, as it is to his 

 interest, to largely increase the consumption of this fruit, and this he can only 

 do bv fostering and cultivating the taste for grapes ; and this is certainly not to 

 be done by giving the people at the very beginning of the grape season such 

 vile trash as will so disgust them that they can hardly again, for months, be 

 even induced to look at a grape. It is the most foolish kind of folly to put into 

 the market a grape so poor that it is not eagerly sought after at home. It 

 should be remembered that the great grape-eating public is made up of individ- 

 ual homes, so that a grape that is good enough for home use, is none too good 

 for market. It is settled, therefore, that one of the first, if not the first, 

 requisite in our "ideal grape" is good quality. 



Besides quality there are other requisites that are common to the market and 

 home grape, such as health, strong growth, hardiness, productiveness, the 

 ability to withstand the attacks of insects, and keeping quality to the extent at 

 least of keeping fresh and plump while hanging on the vine, and for a reason- 

 able time after being gathered. 



There are often points indispensable in a market grape which, though not so- 

 important for home use, are by no means to be despised, namely : a toughness 

 of skin sufficient to insure good handling, size of berry and cluster, and beauty,, 

 which is made up of size, color and brightness, combined with a fine bloom. 



That health, hardiness and the ability to withstand insects are absolute es- 

 sentials, is so evident that we need not even consider fhem. That vigorous- 

 growth is so very essential, is not always conceded, from the fact that strong 

 growth is iiot always a guarantee of productiveness, and yet it is conceded that 

 paying crops cannot be secured without a vigorous development of vine and 

 leaf; even the Delaware is productive in proportion to the vigor that can be 

 forced into it by high feeding and close pruning As strong growth, there- 

 fore, is essential to productiveness, and as it almost insures the ability to with- 

 stand insect depredations, it is safe in selecting our model to err, if at all, on 

 the side of heavy foliage and plenty of it. 



I have already alluded to the good quality of the fruit as of the utmost im- 

 portance, and yet there is no question in grape growing on which there is so- 

 much diversity of opinion as to which should be given the greater importance,, 

 eating quality or productiveness. Of course, quality without fruit, and that in 

 plenty, is worth nothing. On the other hand, tons of fruit, if no better than 

 the wild grape, or the Champion even, are but little better than nothing. So 

 that to a certain extent these qualities are of equal importance. We must have 

 a grape good enough that people will eat it ; that tne s;reat mass of the people 

 will greatly like it. But we shall find a wide difference in tastes. Some peo- 

 ple turn up their noses in extreme disgust at the distinctive flavor of most 

 American grapes, whether we call it foxiness or muskiness. And they claim 

 that we should educate people to a higher standard by giving them only grapes- 



