HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS. 



251 



VIT 



put in crates or large boxes for shipment. There 

 should be no sham allowed to enter here. Let 

 the first quality be all first quality, and so on. 

 Parties can always be found to pay an extra 

 price for a uniformly good thing ; besides, a 

 reputation will be established that is worth more 

 than money. There will be some bunches too 

 small and others too loose for market, besides 

 the bruised berries cut out, etc. These can be 

 consumed at home, or pressed and fermented for 

 vinegar, which will meet with a ready sale. 

 Skill in handling and packing is acquired by 

 practice only, but an expert in these things is a 

 valuable man to have about a place; for his skill 

 goes a great ways in creating a demand for a 

 particular "brand " of Grapes. Boxes holding a 

 pound and a half and five pounds each are much 

 used ; but others of a larger size are also used. 

 The customer buys basket and Grapes together. 

 There are various styles of baskets, and it would 

 be hard to say which is best. 



Preserving Grapes in the winter has not been, 

 generally, as satisfactory as could be wished; 

 still some kinds are kept in pretty good condi- 

 tion till January. The keeping quality depends 

 upon the composition of the Grape, and the 

 fleshy kinds are found to keep best. Many of 

 our natives will not keep at all beyond their sea- 

 son of ripening. Grapes like the Catawba, Di- 

 ana, and lona keep well, the latter being at 

 present our best keeping kind, unless it should 

 be equaled by some of the fleshy varieties re- 

 cently introduced, which, we are inclined to 

 think, will be the case. The conditions for 

 keeping Grapes are a moderately cool, dry, still 

 air of uniform temperature. Sulphite of lime is 

 successfully employed for absorbing the moisture 

 of fruit rooms, and it is also used in the Grape- 

 room. The French use bottles filled with water 

 and suspended by the neck, in which they place 

 some four or five inches of cane with the bunch 

 attached. It has been tried here with reason- 

 able success, the Grapes being found to keep 

 well for a considerable time. A good plan for 

 keeping a small quantity of Grapes in a cool 

 room is to bend a stout wire (a No. 6 or 7) into 

 a hoop or circle, and provide it with wire hooks, 

 on which suspend the Grapes, stem end down. 

 The bunches should not touch each other. On 

 a larger scale make a frame with four corner 

 posts, and cover the top with movable slats a 

 few inches apart, to which attach hooks, and 

 suspend the bunches as in the preceding plan. 

 The bunches being all in sight, they can be 

 looked over readily, and the decaying berries, 

 if any, removed without much handling. A 

 still better method for a room is to make a box, 

 with drawers deep enough to admit a bunch of 

 Grapes. The box or bureau may be large enough 

 to hold from fifty to two or three hundred 

 pounds of Grapes. The top and the front should 

 be set with hinges, and the bottom of the draw- 



WAC 



ers made of slats. Lay the bunches on the bot- 

 tom so that they do not touch each other, first 

 having removed all imperfect berries. When 

 filled, raise the lid and prop it up, and open the 

 door ; let them remain so till the weather gets 

 cold, and then close the door and the lid. Oc- 

 casionally, on warm days, the lid and the door 

 may be opened for a while for ventilation. A 

 little frost will do no harm, but freezing may be 

 prevented by throwing a blanket over the fruit 

 bureau. Some kinds of Grapes have been kept 

 in this way nearly all winter. Expensive struc- 

 tures, combining a fruit and an ice house, are 

 in use in some places, which keep large quanti- 

 ties of Apples, Pears, Grapes, etc , in good con- 

 dition nearly all winter. 



There are many things, more or less important, 

 connected with Grape culture, which we must 

 pass over for want of room. A few more words 

 about manures, however, seem to be called for. 

 For the vineyard, barnyard manure should be 

 relied on chiefly, with all the liquid portions 

 carefully preserved. This should be composted 

 with leaves, muck, etc., and the whole frequent- 

 ly turned and worked over before being applied. 

 The prunings should be burned and added to 

 the heap. Manure should be used more or less 

 frequently, according to the nature of the soil ; 

 but it should not be applied so often or in such 

 quantities as to produce a succulent growth of 

 wood difficult to ripen in the open air, as there 

 is always danger of its being winter killed. 

 Special manures, such as ashes, bone dust, etc., 

 can be applied to the surface and harrowed in. 

 The best time to do this is in the fall of the 

 year, when rains will dissolve and carry it down 

 within reach of the roots. The vineyard, when 

 fully established, cannot be deeply plowed 

 without doing great damage to the roots of the 

 vines. 



We have now gone over the chief and most 

 important operations connected with the estab- 

 lishment of a vineyard of the native Grape. 

 This has necessarily been done in a brief man- 

 ner, but we trust in such a way as to convey so 

 much knowledge of the subject as will enable 

 the reader to make an intelligent beginning. 

 Vriesia. Named in honor of Dr. W. de Vriese, 

 Professor of Botany at Amsterdam, Holland. 

 Linn. Hexandria-Mfmogynla. Nat. Ord. Brome- 

 lia-cece. 



This genus is the most remarkable of the Nat- 

 ural Order to which it belongs. There are but 

 few species, the most interesting being V. speci- 

 osa, a native of Brazil. The beauty of this spe- 

 cies consists in the tall spike of brilliant scarlet 

 bracts, from which the flowers are produced. 

 The flowers are yellow, and quite transient, 

 but the rich color of the bracts continues a long 

 time. The plant has the general appearance of 

 the Billbergia, and requires the same treatment. 

 Introduced in 1844. 



W. 



Waahoo, or Burning Bush. See Euonymus 

 atropurpureus. 



Wachendorfia. Named in honor of J. E. Wach- 

 endorf, a Dutch botanist. Linn. Hexandria-Mono- 

 f/ynla. Nat. Ord. LiHacece. 



A small genus of Cape plants, usually offered 

 in seedsmen's catalogues as bulbs, more from 

 their Ixia-like flowers than the shape of their 

 roots. They all have rhizomes or underground 

 stems, in the scales of which buds, like little 



