HOW TjO GROW AND MARKET FRUIT 



A hard, well-ripened cane the size of your little finger is 

 better than one thicker or slimmer, and very thick ones are 

 worth the least of all. As the fruit-bearing shoots spring each 

 year from wood of the previous season's growth, and from 

 none older, your vines will be a few feet longer each year. 

 About every three years, it will be necessary to let two or three 

 new canes start from the original trunk, then cut away entirely 

 the wood that has been bearing. Treated in this way, a vine 

 will bear heavy crops every year for you, your children, and 

 your grandchildren. 



Cross fertilizing is absolutely essential with grapes. Go 

 through the woods and see the big, healthy wild grape-vines 

 that are full of bloom, yet do not set a single bunch. At bloom- 

 ing-time cut a branch from a vine bearing flowers of the oppo- 

 site sex, take it near the barren vine and thrash it about a little. 

 A great number of the blossoms on the vine heretofore fruitless 

 will be fertilized, and will be loaded with grapes. This little 

 experiment will convince you of the need of cross-fertilizing for 

 any fruit. Not all varieties of grapes blossom at the same time, 

 but they overlap enough to do the work. Any two kinds seem 

 to be able to fertilize each other. 



Campbell's Early, Moore's Early, Concord and Worden 

 are good black varieties. Delaware, Wyoming, Catawba, Brighton 

 and Agawam are good red ones, and Pocklington, Niagara, 

 Green Mountain (Winchell) and Diamond are good white sorts. 



Grapes have many enemies, almost all of which yield readily 

 to spraying and other care. One method of preventing damage 

 is to bag the bunches. This works every time, and does not 

 cost much. When the grapes are about half-grown, paper bags 

 are slipped over the bunches, and either tied around the stem, 

 or split at the top and the two sides wrapped around the cane. 

 These bags will stay on until the grapes are ripe, and prevent 

 damage from all insects and fungi. Other remedies for all 

 grape troubles are given in the spraying directions, and here 

 follow descriptions of the enemies. 



Black Rot, a fungus, first appears on the leaves as small, 

 reddish brown spots, and about two weeks later as light spots 

 on the fruit, beneath which the fruit has decayed, These 

 spots increase in size until they involve the whole berry, which 

 finally turns black, shriveled and crumpled. Downy Mildew, 

 another fungus, appears about the time the vines blossom. 

 There comes a dense, white velvety growth on the under side 

 of leaves and on shoots and fruit. This keeps up all summer. 

 Grape Anthracnose, or Bird's Eye Rot, affects all green parts 

 of the vine, but particularly the shoots and fruit. Little round 

 brown dots with a border appear on the shoots, and gray, 

 red and brown rings, one inside the other, on the berries. 



The Flea Beetle is a steel-blue bug about an eighth of an 

 inch long, the young of which eat away the upper surface of 

 the leaves. Grape Berry Moths look about the same, but from 

 their eggs, which are laid in June or July, hatch white worms 

 that eat into the grapes. Grape Phylloxera (insects) are indicated 

 by fleshy growths on the under side of leaves, and by swelled 



114 



