WHEN GRAPES ARE EIPE. .243 



we must therefore have recourse to taste. If, 

 on tasting a grape, we find the flesh tender or 

 melting throughout, with a sweet and sprightly 

 juice, accompanied with the characteristic 

 flavor of the kind, it is ripe, and we may 

 place it on the table, send it to market, or 

 make it into wine, if it is a wine grape. If it 

 is not in this condition, it should remain on 

 the vine* till it is, or be given to the pigs, (if 

 they will eat it,) or made into vinegar, but it 

 should not be eaten or made into wine. 



There are only a few of our native grapes that 

 ripen their skins, so that they may be eaten. 

 They are not only generally sour, but often 

 acrid and pungent to a degree that can not be 

 tolerated by tender mouths. A few only of our 

 best grapes are free from this fault. It is only 

 when the skin ripens in common with the rest 

 of the berry, that it may be eaten like the 

 skin of the foreign grape. In certain condi- 

 tions of the body, the astringent principle 

 that resides in the skin of the grape is a valu- 

 able medicine, and the edible condition of the 

 skin therefore adds to the value of the grape. 



"We shall get a better idea of ripeness if we 

 take the foreign grape as an illustration. This, 

 as a class, ripens uniformly, and hence its great 



