THE GRAPE. 429 



My experience with cultivated grapes is only with five Concord 

 grape vines that I planted about eight years ago. These vines are 

 planted near the edge of my vegetable garden, and before the ground 

 freezes in the fall I trim off most of the new wood grown that last 

 summer, lay the vines flat on the ground and cover them up with 

 the loose garden soil, so they will be about four inches under ground. 

 The whole performance is done as quickly as one can milk a gentle 

 cow in her best flow of milk ; and they have brought me more than 

 a big pail full of grapes every summer for the last four years. The 

 work to pick them is delightful, and to eat them more so. Grapes 

 that one picks from the vines do not taste old and stale like some 

 grapes bought at stores. 



When ripe the Concord is good to eat out of hand, and picked 

 before they are ripe they make fine jelly, and picked when they are 

 full grown and commence to turn red just a little they make a lovely 

 sauce when cooked that looks and tastes somewhat like California 

 Green Gages. Canned Concord fruit is fine and will keep any length 

 of time. My grapes are planted in a sunny place on high land in 

 black, rich soil, and have had a good crop when we had a wet season, 

 and the last summer, when we had such an unusual drought in our 

 locality and on account of which my crop of sweetcorn was an entire 

 failure, I got a good crop of Concord grapes. The grape vines 

 have such spreading roots that they will reach far out for moisture. 

 I have built a smooth four wire fence for my vines to grow on. 

 In the early summer when they reach the fourth wire, I keep on 

 pinching them back for a week or two, which brings the most nour- 

 ishment from the roots to the fruit that is forming at that time. 

 From then on I let the vines have their own way until I pick the 

 grapes. 



The blue jay likes to help in picking grapes. One fall I left 

 a few bunches to eat occasionally, but before I knew it the blue jay 

 had picked them. I caught him in the last act. But this last fall I came 

 a trick on the blue jay. I left bunches of grapes in little paper bags, 

 and whenever we wanted some grapes we went and picked a bag or 

 more. 



While the Concord grape has been the most common in years 

 gone by, we have now other varieties of black and blue grapes, 

 which are claimed to be superior to the Concord as to sweetness and 

 earliness. And then we have choice varieties of the red and the 

 white that are adapted to our northern climate if covered in the fall. 



I want to set out some more grape vines of different varieties, 

 red, white and blue, and raise enough for the birds, too. I think we 

 ougfht to be kind to our beautiful birds. 



