42 



THE WESTEEN POMOLOGIST. 



1871 



close of the season by rain falling on a rich, moist 

 soil, that the vine continues its growth of leaf and 

 branch to the detriment of its fruit, and the advent 

 of frost destroys the leaves before they have per- 

 formed the office of elaborating the saccharine 

 juices that perfect the grapes. The fruit is conse- 

 quently sour, and our usual comment upon such un- 

 successful results is, the season was not long enough. 

 I would oljserve, however, that by a dry soil I do 

 not mean a sandy one, nor one of whicli gravel 

 forms the largest component part. 1 mean a well 

 drained loam that dries readily both at the surface 

 and in the subsoil ; one which does not hold water 

 like a sponge. 



If I were to give my opinion as to the best soil 

 and situation for grapevines in our latitude,! .should 

 give my preference to a declivity sloping to the 

 southeast or south. As to tlie soil, I consider best 

 one formed of decomposed slate, with an admixture 

 of clay, and resting at a depth of two or three feet 

 on the slate rock itselt. A deep, dark loam, es- 

 pecially if on lower ground, I would never plant 

 upon without a previous preparation of the ground 

 by thorough underdraining; and I would besides 

 have the vines themselves set out in large holes, into 

 which had been previously thrown quantities of 

 broken stone, pieces of brick, (jld mortar, &c., on 

 purpose to make the ground near the roots as dry as 

 possible. But even with all these precautions in 

 planting, there are spots frequently found in gardens 

 where vines will not mature their fruit ; and if 

 these places are open to the sunliglit, and the vines 

 with ordinary care, year after year, refuse to bear 

 sweet grapes, the fault is in the soil, and my advice 

 is to plant somewhere else, or cultivate early varie- 

 ties of grapes. Wlien I first came to the place 

 upon which I now live, I found a number of Ca- 

 tawba and Isabella vines in a fine garden just at the 

 foot of a hill. The ground was in the highest con- 

 dition, and the whole of it had been trenched. The 

 vines most distant from the hill, and upon tlie level 

 ground, grew with wonderful luxuriance and pro- 

 duced many grapes, but regularly every fall the fruit 

 was immature and unfit for the table The more on 

 the hill-slope the vines grew, the better the fruit ; 

 but still it was only during very favorable seasons I 

 could rely upon them for a gond crop. I began to 

 take up my vines in tlie garden, and made a vine- 

 yard still fiirther up the hill, where in some spots 

 wagon loads of rock had to be removed to make 

 the borders for the vines. It is here I now raise 

 nearly every season, almost without exception, fine 

 Catawbas, Isabella and other varieties of grapes. I 

 attribute my success in a great measure to the dry, 

 open and warm soil of the hillside. 



I have Catawba vines in the deep soil of the gar- 

 den, where it is dry and the exposure is good, but 

 there is too rank a growth of vine and the rot 



destroys most of the berries. Not so on the shale 

 of the hill, where the soil is only from 12 inches to 

 18 inches deep. I have there smaller bunches than 

 in the garden, but as sweet as those that are raised 

 in the favored grape regions of the West. * * 

 * * Still it must be acknowledged that we 

 liave yet much to learn on this point. There are 

 sites which, although to all appearance are just cal- 

 culated for grapes, on trial do not make the promise 

 good, and blight, mildew and immaturity disappoint 

 the just expectations of the cultivator. There are 

 climatic influences above ground, and chemical 

 combinations beneath, to be taken into the account; 

 but I have only considered the soil as to its mechan- 

 ical condition in reference to vine culture. 



OIilo Ad Interim Grape Report, 1870. 



We have received the "Convention Report" in 

 which we find the proceedings of the Fourth Annu- 

 al meeting of the Ohio State Horticultural Society. 

 Mr. Bateham in his ad interim report for 1870, for 

 Western Ohio, says of the grape : 



"What grapes shall we plant ? is still the unset- 

 tled question, as the results this year are as various 

 as ever. The C'atnwba ripened splendidly where 

 the soil and location suited, and there was 

 less rotting than usual ; still no one, I think is dispos- 

 ed to plant it anywhere along the Lake Shore east of 

 Cuyahoga county. Delaware ripened well, gener- 

 ally and continues popular. Concord was not quite 

 as full a crop as usual, but fair and good for home 

 marketing, but no use for shipping. Hu/riford pays 

 well as an early grape. lona bore a full crop as 

 usual where the vines were of sufficient strength, 

 and not overtaxed the previous year ; but somehow 

 it does not come up to the expectations of its friends. 

 It is especially contrary about ripening as early 

 and vkiiformly as a respectable grape should. Some 

 of the vines will ripen the fruit well and in good 

 time, while others, without a seeming reason, hang 

 back and remain greenish until quite late. Still, I 

 regard it as the best of all grapes in quality, and 

 even when not quite ripe, the fruit is very good — 

 especially in warm weather, when there is a taste for 

 refreshing acids. I am in hopes that when the 

 vines attain more strength, and we learn to avoid 

 letting them overbear, the difficult}' about ripening 

 will be overcome. The Rogers varieties have again 

 shown some tendency to fiiilure of the foliage, 

 though a few of them are quite reliable in most 

 localities. 



In regard to soil for grapes, I do not think our 

 sandy ridges along the lake shore are the best, or 

 so good as solid clays — especially clay hills or 

 slopes where the surface water runs oft" quickly. 

 It is true, there are some good vineyards on flat 

 clay lands where well drained; but I do not think 

 they will succeed as well in the long run as the 



