GRAPE VINE. 69 



climate, that fruit of larger size and better flavor is pro- 

 duced in English graperies than can be found in even the 

 most highly favored climates where the fruit ripens in the 

 open air. By the skillful application of artificial heat, 

 ripe grapes in great perfection are produced in many vin- 

 eries during every month in the year, in endless succession. 



The productiveness of the grape-vine may be increased 

 to an almost unlimited extent, an example of which is 

 furnished in the much celebrated Black Hamburgh vine in 

 the grapery attached to the royal gardens at Hampton 

 Court, which, in a single season, has produced 2200 bunches 

 averaging a pound each, making in all nearly a ton.* 

 Another vine in England, at Valentine in Essex, has pro- 

 duced 2000 bunches of nearly the same average weight. 

 It occupies above 147 square yards, whilst that at Hamp- 

 ton Court is spread over 160 square yards, one of its 

 branches measuring 114 feet in length. Where the climate 

 and other circumstances are favorable, the age attained by 

 grape-vines is almost unlimited. Pliny mentions one 600 

 years old and still bearing in his time. 



Most of those who have attempted the cultivation in the 

 United States of foreign grapes in the open air have met 

 with discouraging results. The White Sweetwater and 

 Black Hamburgh are almost the only varieties which will 

 gife crops in the open air in the Southern States, or in 

 sheltered situations and gardens in the city of Philadelphia. 



Dr. R. T. Underhill, of New York, states that after 

 having sunk thousands of dollars in attempts to raise the 

 best foreign varieties of grapes in the open air, he has 

 abandoned the project as visionary, and entirely devoted 



* This vine is sometimes called even in books a Red Hamburgh. But 

 there is, in fact, no such particular variety of grape as the Red Hamburgh, 

 that so called being strictly the Black Hamburgh imperfectly ripened. 



