GRAPE MANUAL 



■ORKilN. CLIMATE AND SOIL. 



THE GRAPP]. the longest known, the ear- 

 liest cultivated of all fruits, when and 

 ■where did it originate? 'Neath what suns did 

 the first grape-tendril twine into rich luxuri- 

 ivnce? What hands gathered its first luscious 

 berries? Who can tell? 



Long before research folded back the cur- 

 tains of time, long before the breath of histor}' 

 -ciystalized incident and event, the " amethyst 

 clusters" of the grape ripened under sunnj" 

 skies. Veiled in m^'th, clothed in the shades 

 ■of the past, gleaming from legend and fable, 

 it comes to us breathing suggestions of sylvan 

 deities, Greek festivals and Egyptian rites. 

 Uiblical figures rise before us as we ponder 

 on its origin, and Kings, whose ver}^ names 

 are now forgotten, crowd by on time's re- 

 motest blue. 



The bible itself tells us how, after the great 

 flood, Noah planted a vine which, according 

 to legend, was a gift from God, himself. 



Greek mythology ascribes to Bacchus the 

 lionor of having brought the first vine from 

 India; the ancient Thracians (Bulgarians) 



*That cluster of grapes, seen through the glass of 

 tradition, has heen wonderfully magnified, both as to 

 size and weight. Hyperljolisius are not surprising— 

 should not be surprising— when we consider that they 

 are not very rare in our own day, in the history of our 

 own times even. Popular fancy is ever inclined to 

 magnify; the more so in events of antiquity, events 

 -of a period when tlie printing press did not exist, and 

 when tliere were no exact observers or critics; and 

 what unbridled fancy has invented is carried as tradi- 

 tion from generation to generation, from one century 

 to another until it is believed and repeated, even Ijy 

 men of science. Thus we find in " Wimer's Biblical 

 Encyclopaedia" (Germ., 3d edition, vol. II, p. 684) the 

 following: Stephen Schulz who, about the middle of 

 last century, traveled for several years tlirough Eu- 

 rope, Asia and Africa, and published a work of 5 vols, 

 concerning his travels, found on the southern Libauon 

 a vine with clusters one ell long, weighing 12 pounds, 

 whose berries were of the size of small plums. Forth- 

 with "Kitto's Englisli Cyclopedia of Bililical Knowl- 

 edge (vol. Ill, p. 1071;) repeats the statements, refer- 

 ring them to the same .source, Scliulz and other 

 travelers. Yet, in tlie simple biblical narrative, there 

 is not one icord to justify such legendary exageration. The 

 incident toolv place at the time of the first ripe grapes 

 (Numb. XIII, V. 20), and the messengers, having to 

 carry tlie fruit over a very long journey, afoot, besides 

 being burdened witli pomegranates and figs, wisely 

 a-esorted to this— then common— manner of transport- 



Considered the vine a gift of Dionysus, the 

 god of vegetation. 



According to Egyptian tradition Africa 

 owed the grape-vine to Osiris ; grape-stones 

 (seeds) were found with mummies from 

 Eg3'ptian toml)s of more than three thousand 

 years ago ; as also among the remains of Swiss 

 and Italian lake dwellings of the Bronze-age. 



In Greece, wine was already in general use 

 during the Homeric and Hesiodic times, and 

 it was from the islands of the Ionian and 

 Egean seas that the seeds of an inexhaustible 

 civilization were thrown on the world. 



Turning from myth to ancient history, we 

 find that some three thousand and two hun- 

 dred years ago, when Moses, leader of Israel, 

 sent men to search the land of Canaan — their 

 promised land — and bring of its fruit, two of 

 these messengers, coming to Hebron, where, 

 in the double cave of Abraham, their fore- 

 fathers were sleeping, cut down a branch with 

 one cluster of grapes, and bore it between 

 them, upon a staff, to the children of Israel 

 in the wilderness, showing them the fruit of 

 the land, which they described as "a land 

 flowing with milk and hone3^"* 



ing the grapes. That cluster of grapes was, doubtless, 

 fine and large, especially compared with the small 

 Egyptian grapes familiar to the Israelites; Ijut there 

 is no ground for believing them larger than those grow- 

 ing there at tlie present time. Had they been of such 

 phenomenal size and weight as legendary writers 

 claim and as some modern travelers pretend to have 

 .seen, so important a fact would have been mentioned 

 by the men wlio carried them and whose report to the 

 Israelites was intended to induce tlieir people to at 

 once go up and possess the good land. Reference to 

 this land occurs (luite frequently in the liiljle. It is 

 there spoken of (Deutr. VIII, 7-9) as "a land of wheat 

 and l^arley, and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; 

 a land of olive oil and honey." And, in his last bles- 

 sing, Moses speaks "of the precious fruits," but no- 

 wliere is their large size alluded to; nor do we iDelieve 

 tliat clusters of grapes weighing ten pounds each or 

 more liave ever been found anywhere. The immense 

 villi's raised and grown in England, lately also in 

 California, under glass protection, are jus'.ly cele- 

 brated, and liave produced annual crops of from 1,700 

 to 2,000 bunches; but these are not very large, averag- 

 ing ?4 Ills. each. True, the art of gardeners has pro- 

 duced some single clusters of European grapes (Blaclv 

 Hamburgh, White Nice, Raisin of Calaljria,) grown for 

 exhitiition, weighing from 20 to 25 lbs., but never has 

 iieen found an uncultivated grape, in any part of the 

 world, of which one single bunch weighed half as 

 much. 



