240 



The Grape Culturist. 



EEPOETS ON GRAPES. 



Bluffton, Aug. 19, 1870. 



These ever welcome tokens of suc- 

 cess from our friends ai*e coming in 

 rapidly, and we are enabled to pre- 

 sent our readers with quite a number 

 of them, from all parts of the country. 

 The}" present perhaps the best and 

 most reliable record of successes and 

 failures with varieties, and all of our 

 readers should send us such items, as 

 thc}^ are of great service to those who 

 Avish to plant, and are at a loss what 

 varieties would do best in their local- 

 ity. Some one of their neighbors 

 gives his experience through our col- 

 umns, and it serves as a guide to them 

 at once. 



Of the crop here, we will onl^^ say 

 at present, that it is the largest we 

 ever saw, and the grapes promise to 

 be of excellent quality. Nearly all 

 varieties have done well, except where 

 in parts of our vinej^ards the crop of 

 the Concord was thinned hy the early 

 frost in April, and afterwards by hail. 

 But this is only a small portion, say 

 one-twentieth of the whole area, and 

 the rest make up doubly for what 

 that small portion has lost. In our 

 bottom vineyards the crop of Con- 

 cords, Ives, Hartford, and Telegraph 

 is a glorious sight, and we think the 

 vines in their fourth year will easily 

 average 35 lbs. to the vine. The Nor- 

 ton is a most abundant crop, " through 

 hill or dale," and it is only to be regret- 

 ted that the wine of this noble grape 

 seems to be so slow of sale. The Clin- 

 ton is a failure. Little fruit, very une- 

 ven,and the leaves are covered with the 

 gall louse. The Goethe is a splendid 



crop, wherever strong enough to bear ; 

 so is Wilder, Massasoit, Lindlej', and 

 Eogers No. 2. Merrimack has a big 

 crop in berry and bunch, but rotted 

 some in our Experimental Vineyard. 

 Rulander,Louisiana, Taylor, Maxataw- 

 ney, Cynthiana, Martha, Creveling— 

 all very fine. We will onl}" say at pres- 

 ent, that were we to plant for most 

 markets, among all the well tried vari- 

 eties, we would choose Massasoit, 

 Wilder, Goethe, Martha, Creveling, 

 and Maxatawney; for ivhite wine, 

 Goethe, Lindley, Maxatawney, Mar- 

 tha, Massasoit, Louisiana, and Eulan- 

 der ; for wine resembling Madeira, the 

 Hermann ; for red icine, Creveling, 

 Cynthiana, and Telegraph. These 

 are the so-called newer varieties, 

 which we have tried to our satisfac- 

 tion hero, and of course does not ex- 

 clude the old and well tried varieties, 

 Norton, Concord, Herbemont, and 

 Cunningham, nor would the list per- 

 haps be suitable for all localities. 

 We also had the pleasure to see fruit 

 of four of Arnold Hybrids at our 

 friend Miller's vineyard. Othello, not 

 yet ripe, handsome grower, handsome 

 fruit; will report about its quality 

 later. Cornucopia, firm grower, me- 

 dium, compact bunch, very fine qual- 

 ity even now, when not full}' ripe. 

 Aubuchon, loose bunch, berry looks 

 very delicate and handsome ; trans- 

 parent, hardly ripe enough to judge 

 of it. Brant, the earliest grape we 

 know, earlier even than Mary Ann, 

 and of much better quality, but with 

 a slight Clinton scratch. They all 

 seem to be healthy and good growers. 



