294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from a vine that is overloaded are only purple, not when they 

 are ripe, but when they have got as ripe as they can get ; 

 they have little or no bloom, and they are acid ; they will 

 make a man's stomach ache if he eats many of them ; but if 

 the vine is not overloaded, the berries are large, the grapes 

 are black, the bloom is a very deep blue, and the quality is 

 such as will make people deny that you grew the grapes out 

 of doors ; they will say that it cannot be done, that you can- 

 not get so much sugar and so much high quality into a grape 

 out of doors. A grape-vine can do a certain amount ; it is 

 just like everything else, and just like everybody else. If an 

 ordinary man attempts to spread himself out very wide, he 

 will necessarily become very thin. If the public would make 

 no discrimination in the quality, of course you would grow 

 the larger quantity, but the public know better, especially in 

 the matter of luxuries. It is largely the beautiful things that 

 people are induced to buy. If clusters of grapes are large, 

 if they are handsome, people will buy them ; if they are 

 sweet, they will go for them again, and are willing to pay the 

 difference in cost. Grapes have been sold in the market this 

 year, tons and tons of them, that were not fit to eat ; but the 

 public bought them, as being the best they could find. 

 Another thing ; a great many people do not wait until grapes 

 get ripe before picking. Some of them never would get ripe 

 if they did wait, but they do not wait to let them get their 

 best quality ; as quick as they get half colored they are sent 

 to market, and the people eat what comes to market, asking 

 no questions. They may say they are not very good, but 

 they buy them nevertheless. 



I do not begin to market my grapes until after the first of 

 October. Perhaps you may say, " It won't do for me to do 

 that, because my grapes w^ould freeze up before that lime." 

 It is not so with me. Ordinary frosts do not hurt the grape 

 at all. It is not hurt a particle until you make ice in it, and 

 after the grape has got ripe, it will not freeze, ice will not 

 make in it, until the temperature is as low as twenty-nine de- 

 grees. I dislike to have frost come upon a vineyard, because 

 it will retard the ripening by its action on the leaves, but if 

 grapes are nearly ripe, I care nothing for the frost, so far as 

 the ^apcs themselves are concerned. I have kept a record 



