372 



The Grape Culturist. 



THE RESULT OF THE GRAPE CROP AT BLUFFTON. 



^ye have just finished summing up 

 our books, and find tlie result from 

 about 12 acres, most of them in their 

 third summer, or first-bearing year, to 

 foot up to 43,575 lbs., or a little over 

 3,500 lbs. to the acre. Of these, the 

 proportions are as follows : 



Kortous's Vii-giuia . . .5i acres 22,438 pomuls, 



or a little, over 4,000 lbs. average. 



Concord U acres 17,36;5 pounds, 



or a little below 4,000 lbs. average. 



Clinton i acre 1; I(>) pounds 



Hartford and Ives i acre. , -41 pounds, 



Delaware 1 acre 1 ,401 pounds 



Assorted varieties -i acre 8,!) pounds. 



12 



43,575 



In some instances the 3-ield was truly 

 enormous ; thus, one of our tenants, a 

 Ml'. Boatwright, who occupies a lease 

 in the Missouri Bottom, liad an acre of 

 Xortons, and half an acre of Concords, 

 bearing their first crop, the third sum- 

 mer after planting. From these he 

 gathered 6,468 Ibs.of Nortous,and 3,572 

 lbs. of Concords. One of his Concord 

 vines, of which he weighed the grapes 

 separately, produced 451V lbs. Here, 

 as at Hermann, the Concord overran 

 the estimation made of it the first part 

 of the season, while the Nortons fell 

 below the anticipations entertained. 

 In this it differed from the vintage of 

 1865, otherwise very similar, Avhen the 

 jdeld in must far exceeded our antici- 



pations, while in qxality it fell far below 

 the product of this season, the must of 

 '65 only ranging from 70° to 80°, while 

 this season it ranged from 94° to 104°. 

 The berries contained but little juice 

 this ■season, while they were remai'kably 

 juicy in 1865. 



All in all, when we take into account 

 the age of the vines, an age at which 

 we have seldom seen Norton's Virginia 

 produce even half a crop, and the un- 

 favorable reason, we have abundant cause 

 for satisfaction, and we can look forward 

 with hope and pride to the vintages of 

 "the next and following seasons. In 

 1870, we shall have something like 30 

 acres bearing, and the robust growth 

 of the vines certain]}^ promises an even 

 better yield than this year. We hope 

 much from the Goethe (Rogers' Hybrid 

 No. 1), of which we shall have about 

 2,000 vines bearing ; and think we can 

 report on a good many of our favo- 

 rites next season. Our young wines, 

 all made under our personal supervision, 

 arc doing well, and we hope to have 

 them in a drinkable condition very soon. 



Will our friends also report the 



average crops of their vineyards, and 



thus give the grape-growing public an 



insight and estimate of the grape crop ? 



I We shall be happy to publish them. 



