Hints to Contributors. — Native habits of ovr wild grapes. 



grapes, as we call them in Virginia, 

 M}" observation, for a half century, 

 over a large extent of coantry, has 

 taught me that this family of grapes, 

 including, among their descendants, 

 a very large majority of our culti- 

 vated varieties, are always found 

 either in bottom lands, or near creeks 

 and spring branches — their roots plun- 

 ging into the ever damp, and some- 

 limes boggy ground, and their fruit, 

 invariably, ripening in protecting 

 and generally heavy shade; and more- 

 over, it has been of very rare oc- 

 currence indeed, that a mildewed leaf 

 or rotten berry has been seen by me. 

 This class of vines is never seen on 

 slope, or table land — never on tho- 

 roughly and deeply drained ground 

 — never in the broad open field. 



Now take the Vitis Aestivalis. This 

 class comprizing nearly all of our 

 cultivated grapes, not belonging to 

 the former, is with very rare excep- 

 tions indeed, found on the lines of 

 neglected wormfenees — on hedges — 

 by the road side, on the south-side 

 and on the veiy skirt of the forrest 

 — on naturally drained ground — in 

 the broad sunlight; except that its 

 fruit too, is very generally protected 

 from the direct rays of the sun, both 

 by its own leaves, and those of the 

 bushes and trees, to which the vine 

 alwaj'S clings for support. With this 

 class, too, we generally find the sur- 

 face around the roots well mulched 

 with fallen leaves, and revelling in the 

 light porous mould near the surface. 

 In many cases full crops are produced 

 and matui'ed by both classes ; and I 

 have no doubt that moderate pruning 

 would secure generally a very full 

 product. 



ISTow I do not intend to draw from 

 these premises, so broad inferences 

 as to upset our whole practice in the 

 culture and training of the Catawba^ 

 the Concord, Isabella, Diana, 

 and lona, and the other numberless 

 descendants of the Vitis Labrusca ; 

 and recommend their being planted 

 in swamps and on creek bottoms. 

 Nor shall I contend that the Avhole 

 family of Vitis Aestivalis shall be set 

 to climbing trees, in hedge rows. 



I merely bring these interesting 

 and familiar facts (on our side of the 

 Alleghany at least) to the notice of 

 grape growers, as food for thought. 

 Each one must give what importance 

 he may to them ; and each one, for 

 himself, will decide whether they do 

 not suggest some modification, and if 

 so to what extent, in our system, in 

 which two different classes of grapes, 

 of such widely differing natural in- 

 stincts, are subjected to the same rule 

 as to location and treatment; and 

 whether our treatment of either does 

 not involve a rather violent depar- 

 ture from its natural habits, especially 

 those of the Vitis Labrusca. 



For myself, I will only venture at 

 present, to intimate a doubt, whether 

 we do not err, in insisting on pre- 

 ferring a gravelly or otherwise porous, 

 and sometimes arid soil, with a di- 

 rectly Southern exposure. In the 

 home of the Catawba, Concord, lona 

 et id onine genus, and whether dis- 

 playing the fruit of either of these 

 classes, especially the Labrusca, to the 

 direct rays of a vertical sun, is pro- 

 motive of the healthfulness and per- 

 fection of the fruit. 



An experience, of nearly 40 years, 

 in tbe garden und vineyard r-ulture 



