100 THE HOME ACRE. 



if exposed to light as well as to birds and wasps. 

 Not the fruit but the foliage of the grape-vine 

 needs the sun. 



Few of the early grapes will keep long after 

 being taken from the vine ; but some of the later 

 ones can be preserved well into the winter by 

 putting them in small boxes and storing them 

 where the temperature is cool, even, and dry. 

 Some of the wine-grapes, like Norton's Virginia, 

 will keep under these conditions almost like winter 

 apples. One October day I took a stone pot of 

 the largest size and put in first a layer of Isabella 

 grapes, then a double thickness of straw paper, 

 then alternate layers of grapes and paper, until the 

 pot was full. A cloth was next pasted over the 

 stone cover, so as to make the pot water-tight. 

 The pot was then buried on a dry knoll below the 

 reach of frost, and dug up again on New- Year's 

 Day. The grapes looked and tasted as if they 

 had just been picked from the vine. 



For the mysteries of hybridizing and raising 

 new seedlings, grafting, hot-house and cold grapery 

 culture, the reader must look in more extended 

 works than this, and to writers who have had 

 experience in these matters. 



We shall next consider three fruits which upon 

 the Home Acre may be regarded as forming a 

 natural group, peaches, plums, and raspberries. 



