Bandom Notes on Grape Matters. 



143 



2d. The grape is the most reliable 

 3f all fruits, for the reason that oven 

 the secondary buds will produce a 

 tialf crop if the primary ones are 

 iilled. This does not hold good alone 

 3f frosts in spring, but also of those 

 .n extremely cold winters ; in the 

 pointer of 1863-1864 all the j)rimary 

 Duds on the Concord Avere killed in 

 Fanuar}-, yet our vines produced from 

 ;he secondary buds at the rate of 

 i,000 lbs. per acre. 



3d. Prune long in autumn; it is 

 nuch easier to rub out superfluous 

 shoots at the first summer pruning 

 ban to add what is ''not there." If 

 rou have an abundance of fruit-boar- 

 ng branches, you can much bet- 

 er afford to have them thinned by 



frost than when j'ou have hardl}^ 

 enough ; and if the frost fails to do 

 it, you can easily do it yourself. 



4th. Choose those varieties, other 

 qualities being equal, which start late 

 in spring. They are the safest to 

 depend upon. 



5th. Do not believe the croakers, 

 or your own faint spirit, at every lit- 

 tle mishap, but rather put your trust 

 in Him, who ''tempers the wind even 

 to the shorn lamb," and always look 

 forivard with a hopeful spirit instead 

 of backward. The courageous hearts 

 win the battle of life, not the despond- 

 ing ones, and as the vine is clothed in 

 green, the emblem of hope, so should 

 those who cultivate it ever "hope for 

 the best !" — Editor. 



RANDOM NOTES ON GEAPE MATTERS. 



'OR AVIIAT DO WE GROW THE GRAPE f 



Why, of course, for the money to 

 »e gained thereby. That, and that 

 ,lone, is the leading point inductive 

 if application towards culture of the 

 ;rape outside of the amateur's gar- 

 len. From what C. W. Idell (see 

 i'eb. number) writes, when his com- 

 aissions are taken out, I doubt if any 

 aan can possibly see a profit, calcu- 

 ating two tons to the acre, if we 

 ;row grapes to supply the wholesale 

 larket of such cities as New York. 

 Lnd is not New York the point from 

 rhich most dealers are prone to esti- 

 mate the value of whatever may 

 omc to their own market. Unfor- 

 unately it is, and being so, the pro- 

 ucer is often injured and the market 

 irice regulated without regard to ac- 



tuality. It is, .therefore, that I ask, 

 For what do we grow grapes ? be- 

 cause, if we are to be thummed any 

 longer by the huckster taking advan- 

 tage of us and our necessities — taking 

 our grapes and soiling them at a high 

 retail rate and counting to us at only 

 a nominal wholesale price, it is time 

 wo planted onh^ of such sorts as are 

 valuable for wine rather than for table 

 use. The grape when made into 

 wine, will keep for years^ and for a 

 certain length of time will gain in 

 value more than the interest of ten 

 per cent, on the mone^'. The grape, 

 if of a qualit}^ to make good wine — 

 ranging its must say at 80"^ of Oes- 

 chle's scale saccharometer — it is worth, 

 when pressed, at least eighty cents a 

 gallon from the press, which is not 

 less than seven cents a pound for the 



