Prolonged Ripening of Grapes. 197 



PROLONGED RIPENING OF GRAPES. 



EXPERIMENTS OF THE KELLEY's-ISLAND WINE COMPANY, 



The question, when grapes are ripe, is, with most people, less difficull lo 

 solve than how to get them ripe. In some favored localities, however, like 

 the islands and points of the south shore of Lake Erie, the absence of 

 autumn frosts allows such a prolonged season of ripening, that the grapes 

 sometimes become over-ripe for their best eating condition. It is found 

 that even the Catawbas are of better flavor, more sprightly and agreeable, 

 when/V/j/ ripe, say about the 15th of October, than at a later period, when 

 " dead-ripe," or in the best condition for wine-making. 



Among wine-makers, there has been some difference of opinion in regard 

 to the amount of gain, if any, from allowing Catawba grapes to remain on 

 the vines from two to four weeks later than the time of the best market- 

 ripeners of the fruit. With a view to settling this important question, the 

 Kelley's-island Wine Company have made careful and extended experi- 

 ments the past two seasons, the results of which will be read with interest 

 by grape-growers and wine-makers. They are given as follows, in an essay 

 presented to the Lake-shore Grape-growers' Association, at its meeting in 

 Cleveland the past month, from the pen of George C. Huntington, Esq., of 

 Kelley's Island. 



On the 2 2d of October, 1866, the company commenced buying Catawba 

 grapes for wine, and continued to buy, daily, until the 13th of November, 

 at which date the vintage was completed. The aggregate amount taken in 

 was one hundred and three tons, comprising two hundred and thirty-five 

 different lots, each one of which was sampled by pressing the juice from 

 part of the lot, and testing the gravity of the must by Gischle's scale, — 

 the scale generally in use among wine-makers. 



The result showed a gradual gain in the weight of the must until the 

 close of the season. The time covered by the experiments was, however, 

 so short, commencing later and ending earlier than usual, that the gain was 

 not so great as might be expected in ordinary seasons covering double the 

 time. 



In 1867, the past season, these experiments were renewed, and continued 



