CROPS AND PROFITS 



on their shoulders to carry such a bunch as 

 that!" 



By this admeasurement, indeed, no portion 

 of New England can be counted equal to the 

 land of Canaan. There are grapes, however, 

 which yield gracefully to the requisitions of the 

 climate, and furnish abundant clusters, if not 

 large ones. As yet, for out-of-door culture — 

 such as every farmer may plant with faith, 

 and without trembling for the early frosts— 

 the two most desirable are the Concord and 

 Diana. The first the more hardy and sure; 

 the latter the more delicate and luscious. In- 

 deed, few dessert fruits can outmatch a well- 

 ripened, sun-freckled, fully developed and 

 closely compacted bunch of the Diana grape. 



The Catawba has its advocates, and it is 

 really a dainty fruit if it have good range of 

 sun, and is not hurried in its ripening; but in 

 delicacy of flavor it must yield to the Diana. 

 The Catawba crop is also exceedingly uncer- 

 tain in this latitude, by reason of the shortness 

 of the season. A gaunt old vine of this variety, 

 which stands behind the farmhouse, has given 

 me only two crops in the six years past; the 

 frosts have garnered the promise of the others. 

 I have now, however, contrived to conduct its 

 trailing mantle upon a rude trellis, so as com- 



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