552 How to raise Isabella Gi'apes. 



die of the third joint, thus leaving two good eyes, and a 

 third at the base, (of this little branch,) from which to rear 

 another bearing branch another year. Then the canes were 

 carefHlly gathered together and tied ; the whole was bent 

 round like a large wheel and done up in straw as usual ; a 

 mat thrown over it, (to keep off the sun, not the cold.) and 

 the whole rested against the house through the winter. 

 Last spring, (1850,) I unbound the straw and loosened the 

 canes in April, and put up the vine on the trellis. May 25th. 

 All the buds broke finely all the way to the ground. They 

 looked very fine. 



A great abundance of fruit appeared in .Tune, more than 

 four hundred bunches. The poorest, and those on the back 

 side of the vine, were taken off; only two hundred and 

 twenty-five bunches remained to grow by the 10th of July. 

 To please some of my neighbors who seemed proud of my 

 vine, I spliced my trellis and pushed it up nine feet further 

 this year, — each cane having grown that much, to the very 

 top of the added trellis. Notwithstanding this great growth, 

 (63 feet,) the fruit ripened very well, and was gathered, Oc- 

 tober 8th, in fine condition, though not quite so large as it 

 was the last year. 



This vine, with its splendid array of fruit, and its fine, 

 portly dimensions, has arrested the attention of every passer 

 by, the whole season. It covers a trellis eight feet wide by 

 twenty-four feet high, which stands eighteen inches from 

 the house, and is secured to the same with stout wire hooks 

 and stays. The blinds open freely behind this trellis, the 

 fruit appearing at the parlor windows in October, of rich 

 purple hue and in great profusion. I have enjoyed many a 

 taste of the grapes this fall as I rise in the morning, from 

 the chamber windows, which is certainly an unusual thing 

 for a " Down-Easter" to be doing. 



I wished to ascertain to a certainty what amount of frost 

 this grape would bear without injury, and so I left about a 

 dozen bunches on the vine. October 28th, I took off six or 

 eight, and found them delicious, of excellent flavor, and far 

 superior to anything I ever saw in Boston market, for grapes 



