Causes of Failure in Grape Growing. 



17.> 



of this is so undeniable, very few of 

 them, if any, and certainly no ex- 

 perienced grape grower will dispute 

 what I said in the premises. Mr. 

 Fuller says : " I have always observed 

 that the man who so arranged his 

 plans that he was sure of a steady 

 income, was .far more likely to get 

 rich than one who was on the look 

 out for large sums at one time." It 

 is true, we have heard of vineyards of 

 hundreds of acres successfully estab- 

 lished in a few seasons in California. 

 I am not sufficiently informed with 

 the condition of things there to ac- 

 count for it ; here, it is impossible. And 

 yet, every year furnishes new in- 

 stances of men who cannot resist the 

 temptation ; who proudly boast of the 

 number of acres they had put in vine- 

 yard, only to tell in a few years that 

 they abandoned the undertaking, that 

 it proved a failure. 



There are others who do not plant 

 more than a few acres in vineyard, 

 and yet undertake too much to be 

 successful in grape culture; with them 

 the vineyard is simply accessory, a 

 matter of pleasure, an experiment at 

 most ; they have their field crops to 

 attend to, their stock and dairy ; they 

 raise corn, wheat, hay, and potatoes, 

 but have a hill side, and want to have 

 also their own vineyard on it, and 

 they plant a few acres in strawberries 

 and other small fruit, and may be a 

 large orchard besides. They have 

 heard that fruit growing is very profit- 

 able, and they argue that, as there are 

 seasons of failure in most any crop, 

 and especially in grapes, it must be 

 best not to rely on one thing alone, 

 but to have various branches to fall 



back upon. When the one fails the 

 other will pay, consequently they will 

 be on the safe side. Lot them not 

 deceive themselves ; so far at least as 

 vineyards are concerned; these will 

 not permit us to treat them as a mat- 

 ter of secondary consideration. The 

 grape, king of fruits, demands a pure 

 and almost undivided devotion ; at 

 least, he that wants success in grape 

 culture must give his first and best 

 care to his vineyard ; his other crops 

 must be secondary with him. The 

 fact that comparatively many Ger- 

 mans and but few Americans succeed 

 in vineyard culture, is generally at- 

 tributed to a peculiar knowledge or 

 skill and experience which Germans 

 are supposed to possess in this branch, 

 and I hardly ever found an American 

 to go into vineyard planting without 

 endeavoring to hire some German 

 vintners for ,the purpose ; but if you 

 examine into the history, the biog- 

 raphy of our most successful German 

 vignerons in this country, you M'ill 

 find that none of them knew much, 

 if any thing, about grape growing in 

 the old country, and possessed neither 

 skill nor experience in this branch of 

 horticulture when they commenced ; 

 that they knew in fact not as much in 

 this respect as any one of their un- 

 successful American competitors who 

 ever read Allen's or Buchanan's, or 

 Chorlton's or any other American 

 Grape Grower's Guide, imperfect as 

 they were, and certainly by far loss 

 than those who now have lliismann's 

 or Fuller's excellent little works to 

 guide them. The cause of their fail- 

 ure and of the success of the former 

 must be found therefore in something 



