Planting. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Seed Culture. 33 



practical grape-grower, tlierefore, who desires 

 to plant certain varieties, all fruit-bearing, 

 will not plant seeds, nor young plants raised 

 from seeds — although some theorists pretend 

 that the long continued propagation and 

 culture of the grape from the wood was the 

 cause of its recent failures to withstand 

 diseases, insects, and other parasites. Care- 

 ful and unprejudiced investigation and rea- 

 soning as well as practical experiments have 

 fully established the facts : that seedlings 

 resist no more successfully than plants from 

 cuttings, nor are the}' much less sensitive to 

 the vicissitudes of climate ; and that the long 

 continued culture and propagation from wood 

 has nothing to do with the greater or less 

 resistance to disease, nor has their cellular 

 tissue been softened thereby. 



For practical grape culture we should use 

 none but the best rooted plants of those 

 kinds which we wish to produce. Some 

 vintners, from supposed economy, use only 

 ■cuttings to plant their vineyards, placing two 

 cuttings where one vine is to grow ; but the 

 result generally is unsatisfactory, especially 

 witb American varieties, most of which do 

 not root as easily as those of the European 

 Vinifera class, and make much replanting 

 necessary ; and where both cuttings do grow, 

 one must be pulled out. Those vintners 

 would do better, by far, by first growing 

 their cuttings one or two years in nurser}?^ 

 rows, and afterwards transplanting the best 

 of them to their intended vineyard. 



But if we desire to obtain new varieties we 

 must plant seed. This is a far more uncertain, 

 slow and difficult operation than most people 

 imagine, and but very few have been success- 

 ful in it. Just as some careful breeders of 

 animals have succeeded in raising improved 

 kinds, on which they engrafted certain 

 qualities by crossing, so have horticulturists 

 endeavored to reach the same end by hybrid- 

 izing the best varieties of grapes and planting 

 their seeds, having due regard to the charac- 

 teristics of the parents from which they breed. 



But of late still another very important 

 function has been assigned to seed planting, 

 namely, to produce in Europe (especially 

 where the importation of our cuttings and 

 rooted plants has been prohibited) American 

 vines, which resist the Phylloxera, as graft- 

 ing stocks. For, however great the tendency 

 to variation is in seedlings, still, under all 

 circumstances and changes of soil and climate, 

 they retain the Phjdloxera-resisting root as 

 well as other botanical characteristics of their 

 parents.* During the last years we have 



* For this purpose it is best to use the seed of the 

 wild grape, especially of ^Estivalis and of Riparia; the 

 seed of hybrids should not be used. 



furnished several thousands of pounds of 

 grape-seed to Austria, Italy, Spain, and 

 Portugal. The reports of their germination 

 were generally favorable. The following 

 report of v. Babo, kindly furnished us in 

 spring 1883 is certainly both reliable and 

 interesting in this respect: "Of the grape- 

 seeds received from you last 3^ear, the Riparia 

 sprouted best; so well, indeed, that we can 

 scarcely manage the innumerable small seed- 

 lings. All the other seedlings (from culti- 

 vated sorts) show great variety in fruit, color, 

 foliage, &c. Most variable are those from 

 Taylor seed; from tlie 2,500 bearing vines 

 raised from seed of this one variety, a hun- 

 dred distinct sorts can easily be selected. 

 The young plants from Riparia seed seem 

 not to vary much, as we can find but very 

 little essential difference in their foliage." 



We do not intend here to discuss the vari- 

 ous modes of multiplication or propagation of 

 grape-vines from cuttings, layers or single 

 eyes (buds), still less the methods of produc- 

 ing new varieties from seed and of hybridiz- 

 ing, as this would far exceed the scope of 

 this brief manual, nor do we desire to say 

 whether plants grown from cuttings, from 

 single eyes or from laj^ers, are preferable. 

 Propagators and nurserymen are not con- 

 sidered disinterested, impartial judges on 

 this question. But we may say without fear 

 of contradiction that for success in grape 

 growing it is of first importance to get the 

 best plants. Vines raised from layers were in 

 former years held to be superior, and are 

 still preferred by many, but unprejudiced 

 and observing cultivators have found that 

 they only look stronger and finer, but are not 

 as good as plants properly grown from cut- 

 tings or single-eyes, of mature, health}^ 

 wood. 



Our German and French vine-dressers 

 generally practiced growing vines from lo)ifj 

 cuttings, but short (two or three eye) cut- 

 tings will usually make stronger and better 

 ripened roots. Others again haA^e obtained 

 the best results from single-eye plants, and 

 consequently prefer them. The celebrated 

 French ampelograph Dr. Jules Guyot praised 

 single-eye cuttings as physically and phj'sio- 

 logically most approaching to those raised 

 from seed. We have tried all, and find that 

 it makes very little difference how the vine 

 has been produced and raised, provided it 

 has strong, firm, health}^, well-ripened roots, 

 and wood, with plump and perfect buds. As 

 a general rule, a well yroicn vine is in its best 

 condition for pla ting when 07ie year old. 

 Fuller and many other good authorities prefer 

 two-year old transplanted vines ; vines older 

 than two years should not be planted, and 



