GRAPE. 



245 



Keeping grapes. The keeping quality of grapes varies 

 much with the different kinds; some varieties will hardly keep 

 a week after being gathered, while others are easily kept for 

 two or three months by using only ordinary care. A moist, cold 

 cellar is a very good place to keep them. The bunches should 

 first be relieved of any cracked or injured berries, and then laid 

 one tier deep on shallow trays or shelves, so that the air may cir- 

 culate freely among them. The fruit should be perfectly dry 

 when put in the cellar. If the cellar is not cool when needed 

 for use some ice may be put in it in a tub and the windows kept 

 shut in the day time and opened at night. If the grapes are 

 packed in dry saw dust or cork bark they will keep even better 

 than on trays. Where cold storage is accessible they may be 

 packed in baskets before being stored, but in any case great 

 care should be taken to remove any injured berries, or they will 

 rot and spoil those near them. 



Girdling the grape to advance the period of ripening is prac- 

 ticed to a limited extent, but there is quite a difference of opin- 

 ion regarding the ultimate 



Fig. 115. Girdling the grape. French 

 girdling tool which removes a 

 section of bark about one-fourth 

 Inch wide. Branch of grape vine 

 showing where girdling can be 

 safely done on the portions of 

 the cane that are pruned away. 



effect of the operation on 

 the health and vigor of the 

 vine. It seems, however, to 

 be pretty generally conced- 

 ed that it can be done to a 

 limited extent without seri- 

 ous, if any, injury; that it 

 generally advances the peri- 

 od of ripening from seven to 

 ten days, and that the 

 fruit from girdled vines 

 is considerably larger than 

 from vines not girdled and 

 of just as good quality. The 

 operation consists in taking 

 out a ring of bark one- 

 fourth inch or more in width 

 at any time during the 

 growing seasoa but gener- 



