Climate, Soil, etc. 



BUSHBERG CATALOGUE. 



Grape Localities. 



quantity, and oftcm entirely .fairs, gra^e culture 

 may exist on a small scale for home use and 

 market, but on a'lacge sc'al'e.it will not re ward 

 the vintner'** labor, and \v'ou^d -finally b& aban- 

 doned. As California in the West, so does 

 Virginia in the East, and parts of Texas and 

 Arkansas in the South, seem to possess the 

 best localities for grape culture on a very large 

 scale. 



There are only a few countries where the 

 grape will, in favorable seasons, grow to 

 perfection, and there is no country in the 

 world where all kinds of grapes would suc- 

 ceed. Species found in the lower latitudes 

 will not flourish if removed further north ; the 

 natives of higher altitudes will not endure the 

 southern heat ; the Scuppernong cannot ripen 

 north of Virginia ; the Fox grape of the North 

 will scarcely grow in the lower regions of Car- 

 olina and Georgia ; a vine which produces 

 delicious grapes in Missouri may become very 

 inferior ia the most favored localities of New 

 Hampshire. 



Thus the climate, the mean temperature as 

 well as the extremes, the length of the growing 

 season, the relative amount of rain, the ameli- 

 orating influence of lakes and large rivers, the 

 altitude as well as the soil, have an almost 

 incredible influence on various varieties of 

 grapes ; and a judicious choice of locations 

 adapted to the grape, and of varieties adapted 

 to our location, its climate and soil, is there- 

 fore of the first importance. 



" No one grape is suited to all localities ; nei- 

 ther is there any one locality which is suited 

 to all grapes." . W. Campbell. 



Notwithstanding that over 1500 varieties are 

 cultivated in Europe, yet the number of kinds 

 especially adapted to the different localities is 

 very limited for each of them, and we sel- 

 dom find more than three or four varieties 

 to form the main bulk of the vineyards of the 

 different sections ; each province, county or 

 township even, having its own special favor- 

 ites. This question of adaptability to soil and 

 local climate is one of the greatest importance, 

 and should be closely studied by the intelligent 

 grape grower if he would make its culture a 

 success. No existing variety, and probably 

 none that will ever be produced, is well adapt- 

 ed to general cultivation in more than a limited 

 portion of this vast country. This limitation 

 is not determined by isothermal lines. Success 

 or failure of a variety depends not only on 

 degrees of heat and cold ; not only on earliness 

 or lateness of seasons, however important fac- 

 tors these may also be, but on numerous 

 causes, some of which we cannot, PO far, suffi- 

 ciently understand and explain. We need but 



remember that the grapes we cultivate in the 

 United States have originated from one or the 

 other of several distinct species, or from crosses 

 between some of their varieties, and that each 

 of those native species is found growing wild 

 in certain limited portions of our country, and 

 not at all in others. Thus the wild Labrusca 

 is a stranger to the lower Mississippi Valley 

 and westward. By observing what species 

 grows in a locality, we may safely assume that 

 cultivated varieties of the same sp3cies will 

 thrive best in that locality or its vicinity uuder 

 otherwise proper conditions. Where the na- 

 tive species does not exist, its cultivated varie- 

 ties may for a time promise excellent success ; 

 but in many localities this promise will prob- 

 ably, sooner or later, end in disappointment. 

 This has been our sad experience even with 

 the Concord, which is generally considered 

 the most reliable, healthy and hardy Ameri- 

 can grape. 



On the other hand this proposition seems to 

 conflict with the fact that American vines of 

 different species have been successfully trans- 

 planted even to Europe. But it would be a 

 great mistake to believe that they would suc- 

 ceed in all parts of that continent. It was 

 found, on the contrary, f hat there also some of 

 our varieties which succeed well in one portion 

 of France, for instance, entirely failed in oth- 

 ers ; and this only proves that we may find in 

 far-off foreign lands localities which exactly 

 correspond in soil, climate, etc., with certain 

 localities in our own country, and where this 

 is the case, well and good ; but where these are 

 different the results are unsatisfactory. In 

 evidence we quote from the report of the com- 

 mission, composed of some of the best French 

 authorities, to the International Phylloxera 

 Congress, in Bordeaux (Oct., 1882). After giv- 

 ing a detailed report of their observations in the 

 principal vineyards of France where American 

 vines have been planted, they say, " But they 

 (these resisting American vines) do by no means 

 succeed equally well in all locations. The na- 

 ture of the terrain and the climate must be 

 taken into serious consideration. But was it 

 not one of the great difficulties with the French 

 vines to know which variety suited such or 

 such soil or aspect? How many failures were 

 the consequence of bad selection ! It is, of 

 course, the same with American vines, coming 

 from widely different conditions of tempera- 

 ture, humidity and altitude.' 



Unfortunately, this has been and is even now 

 but insufficiently understood. 



Indigenous wild grapes were found at the 

 discovery of this new world ; the legend tells 

 us that when the Norsemen first discovered 



