SOMETHING ABOUT THE SCUPPERNONG GRAPE. 



A Fine Wine Grape that Promises Much as an Investment Best 

 Returns for Outlay of Any Crop. 



The Scuppernong will grow and produce grapes on any of the 

 sandy lands of eastern North Carolina. 



Cuttings may be secured in great quantity by taking any Scupper- 

 nong vine and letting it fall on the ground in June and throwing a 

 few shovelfuls of dirt on it at from two to- three feet from the outer 

 ends of the limbs. These take root quickly in the fresh earth, and 

 can be taken up and cut off any time from November 1st to March 

 1st, and set out. Care should be used in selecting thrifty vines with 

 nice grapes, as the vine reproduces the kind. Seedlings are not 

 worth planting, as you do not know what kind of grapes they will 

 produce. 



The land should be laid off in rows twenty feet apart, the vines 

 being set out twenty feet apart in the rows, and planted true and 

 square. A good post standing out of the ground not less than seven 

 feet should be set to each vine. These should be of cedar, oak, or light- 

 wood, as the setting of new posts cuts the roots off the vines. A good 

 cutting will reach almost to the top of the post in one year, if prop- 

 erly cared for. The best method is to wire the vines. When this is 

 done rows of posts, well braced, have to be set out around the edge of 

 the vineyard, to which are attached the larger wires. Down each 

 row a No. 10 galvanized wire is run as a governor wire, and stapled 

 to the top of each post. Across these governor wires you stretch at 

 first one No. 14 wire. If well braced at the ends this gives all the 

 posts secure bracing. As the vines grow and spread out, you add on 

 each side of the No. 14 wire other wires, always keeping good arbors 

 for the vines to run on. The vine should not be allowed to bunch up 

 in knots, but be kept spread out and growing uniformly in all direc- 

 tions. It takes 108 vines to set out an acre properly laid off. 



The land should be cultivated with leguminous crops, and the 

 vines kept free from trash around the roots, which grow close to the 

 top of the ground. Do not cultivate under the branches, as the roots 

 extend and draw sustenance as far as the branches run. Hence, if 

 you plow close. to the vines, you. tear up the roots. The best method 

 we know is to keep the roots, all around the body of the vine and as 

 far as the branches extend, mulched with a heavy coat of leaves and 

 straw. The home of the vine is in the piney woods, where, in the 

 rich virgin soil, it spreads hundreds of feet. The best vines we have 

 ever seen were in old garden plots where they were never plowed, 

 but the weeds kept down. A good plan is, perhaps, to have sheep 

 graze under the vines ; but the best plan is to keep in cultivation the 



