1 68 Keeping Grapes, 



KEEPING GRAPES. 



One of the most serious objections to the more extensive culture 

 of the grape, is the brief time it can be kept in good condition after 

 ripening. This is especially true of the leading popular varieties, such 

 as Concord, Delaware, Hartford Prolific, etc. They must be marketed 

 and used in a very few days after being gathered, or they are value- 

 less, and ripening so nearly at the same time, and necessarily forced at 

 once into market, the result often is sales at prices so low as to be un- 

 satisfactory to the grower. 



As a partial remedy for this, fruit-houses are being devised, in which, 

 by means of a low and uniform temperature, the season may be pro- 

 longed for many kinds, some even into the following spring or summer. 



But, on account of its cost, this is a device that can only be practica- 

 ble where large quantities of fruit are kept for the market, or by 

 people of wealth, where cost is not a serious consideration. For the 

 mass of the people, to whom fruit should not only be abundant, but as 

 long continued as possible, the aim must be the selection of varieties 

 which can be kept for the longest periods without such expense and 

 care. 



Fortunately there are varieties which combine good cjuality with the 

 habit of long keeping. Among these we may name the Catawba, 

 lona, and, with some abatement as to quality, the Isabella. 



But the sections of country where these varieties will succeed is lim- 

 ited, and therefore others must be sought. The most promising now 

 bef(5re the public, so far as the writer is awai=e, are some numbers of 

 Rogers's Hybrids, and first and best of these, the Salem. Various 

 parties exhibited this superb grape, in excellent condition, at the recent 

 fruit-growers' meetings in Rochester and Canandaigua, that had been 

 kept into the month of February, without the aid of fruit houses, in 

 ordinary rooms, subject to the changes of temperature, which so 

 quickly destroy most grapes ; and I learn that Mr. Babcock, of Lock- 

 port, has still some in good condition at this writing. 



Years since Mr. Rogers pronounced the Salem the best of his 

 grajDCS, and as that judgment is now confirmed by general approval, it 

 adds no little to the value of the grape that it proves itself an excellent 

 keeper. jR. C. 



LocKPORT, N. Y., March 13, 1871. 



