GRAPE CULTURE. 



19 



" We know that the direct action of the sun on the entire vine 

 and the soil which gives it nourishment, affects, in an important 

 degree, the quality and quantity of its produce." 



He thought that his method hastened the time of ripening from 

 ten to twelve days. His fruit ripened and was sold before his 

 neighbors'. He marketed Concords on the 8th of September, and 

 at that time, and for two weeks after, he had the command of the 

 New Haven market. His idea is that the direct action of the sun 

 on the roots and foliage makes the fruit earlier and sweeter. He 

 did not mulch. On the 20th and 21st of August, when this 

 essay w^as written, his grapes were coloring, and the mercury in 

 the thermometer averaged, in the soil of the warm vine bed, 

 eleven degrees higher than in the shaded gi'ound at the sides of 

 it, thus giving him the benefit of a climate like that of Vineland, 

 N. J. He thoroughly ripened Concord grapes as early as the 

 middle of September the past season, which was about two weeks 

 later than usual, when most of the Concords in his vicinity failed 

 to ripen before October. 



Mr. Hovey said that in 1854 Mr. Bull had Concord grapes fully 

 ripe September 7th, on a sandy sidehill. He thought it did not 

 matter much where the top of a grape vine was, if the roots were in 

 a warm place. He had known Clintons to ripen on top of a maple 

 tree fifty or sixty feet from the ground, when on low trellises they 

 were far from maturity. Mr. Barnett's success was owing to his 

 ground being exposed to the sun. 



Mr. Davis thought thirty inches rather deep for the vine bed. 



Mr. Barnett said that he began with soil on his land six inches 

 in depth and had been gradually deepening, and now it was mel- 

 low and rich down nearly two feet. While his neighbors' strawber- 

 ries suffered in dry seasons, those which he grew between the trel- 

 lises were fine, and brought him, at wholesale, thirty cents per 

 quart throughout the season. These retailed for thirty -five cents, 

 or about one cent apiece, being mostly Jucundas, which take 

 thirty to forty berries to make a quart. 



Grape roots vary ; some, such as the Clinton, have fibrous roots 

 like the maple, while others, such as the Agawam and Catawba, 

 have finger roots, like the tulip tree. 'In his vine beds, thirty inches 

 deep, they never break down in time of drought, the larger roots- 

 sucking up moisture from below while the fibrous roots are feeding 

 near the surface. 



