74 



THE WESTERN POMOLOGIST. 



1871 



acetic acid. I have never lost any wine from this 

 cause. Scuppernong wine is now used in New 

 York City to a considerable extent in the manufac- 

 ture of Champagne. Several parties in North 

 Carolina are also manufacturing Champagne from 

 it. One party has a vineyard from which they 

 expect to make, when in full bearing, 200,000 gallons 

 of Scuppernong wine per annum, and purpose to 

 manufacture the whole product into Champagne. 

 Under the old process of fermentation, I have never 

 succeeded in producing a dry wins from the juice of 

 this grape. Late in the fall of 1869 I procured R. 

 d'Heurense's patent air apparatus and applied his 

 process to new Scuppernong wine some four or five 

 weeks old and quite sweet, at a temperature of 80 

 deg. P., obtaining in less than one week a sound dry 

 loine showing eight per cent, of alcohol. In two 

 weeks' time from the commencement of aeration, 

 tlie wine was clear and bottled ; and in less than 

 three weeks from the commencement of this pro- 

 cess samples of the wine were exhibited at the 

 Georgia State Fair, and received a diploma from 

 the awarding committee. 



With your approval, Mr. Editor, I propose in a 

 future number of the Pomologist to give the theory 

 and practical working of this new scientific princi- 

 ple in the manufacture of wine and other purposes. 

 I have no doubt that Scuppernong wine made by 

 this process will compare favorably with the best 

 wines made from any of our native grapes. Millions 

 of acres of land in the Southern States adapted to 

 the cultivation of the Scuppernong, can be bought 

 for from $3.00 to $10.00 per acre. 



Tree Cnltnre of the Grape Vine. 



Some years ago we published a paper from the 

 "Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences," in which it was shown why 

 grape vines grew better when running over trees 

 than any where else. There was motion in the ten- 

 drils, and the amount of food required to produce 

 this motion was a great strain on the nutritive 

 function of the vine. This motion of a tendril in 

 search of something to cling to continues for ten 

 days or so, when it dies. If the plant is clambering 

 over a tree, the tendril finds something to cling to 

 almost as soon as it is ready for support. Then there 

 is no waste of force in useless motion. The whole 

 energy of the plant is spent on healthy growth. 



It is remarkable that no use has been made ot this 

 discovery in practical grape culture. We still go 

 on in the most extensive manner, failing day after 

 day under our old systems — getting perhaps a three 

 or four year crop — feeling that we have one of the 

 best grape countries in the world ; and then failing 

 utterly and concluding as positively that our coun- 

 try is totally unsuited to grape culture. 



Often people who live near us, caU and say grapes 

 cannot be grown in Germantown. We simply 

 point to a vine from our office window, the picture 

 of health and productiveness, which has been al- 

 lowed to have its own wilful way. It is but twelve 

 years old, and was planted near the root of a weep- 

 ing ash tree, simply to help its drooping branches 

 to make shade. It has covered the ash, gone over a 

 20-year-old Silver Fir, a White Pine, a Himalayan 

 Pine, a Larch 40 feet high, and sundry other things; 

 and there is no reason that we can now see why it 

 would not cover any amount of low, bushy trees 

 that could be got on to a quarter of an acre of 

 ground. So is another, an Isabella, which was 

 planted by a Morello tree. There it hangs with its 

 hundreds of bunches, although it is looked on as a 

 first class article of horticultural faith that the Isa- 

 bella will "do no more good in these days in Ger- 

 mantown." 



Now we do not recommend vines to go untrained 

 or untrimmed over trees ; but we do most certainly 

 believe that a good system of tree culture of the 

 grape would make the fortune of any one engaged 

 in it. 



We find by long experience, that it is no use to 

 place truth before the people, and let it grow its 

 own way ; and we now give notice, that having by 

 a long course of observation and study, and practi- 

 cal results, arrived at the certainty that this kind of 

 a grape system is the only hope for our country, we 

 shall cultivate this idea by all manner of means,and 

 shall not allow it in futnre to be crowded out by 

 rank weeds of any kind. We shall do for it as we 

 have done for surface root culture : hold it up before 

 the horticultural community at all sorts of times, 

 and in all sorts of ways. We think this a fair no- 

 tice to every reader of the Gardeners' Monthly, who 

 does not want to have ^'tree ctdture of the viiie" for- 

 ever before him, to close his accounts with the 

 publishers at once, and thus drop into his horticul- 

 tural grave. 



To-day we shall merely say , that in the warm 

 climate of southern Italy, where the hot weather is 

 so very much like our own, this system has been in 

 existence for ages, and therefore we do not ask for 

 the Germantown grape vines the credit of any new 

 discovery. The first thing they do in planting a 

 vineyard is to set out maple trees only four feet 

 apart. These for the first year a^e trained so that 

 arms shall come out at regular distances all up the 

 trunk of the tree, as regularly as the branches come 

 out on a Larch or Pine tree. By summer pruning 

 these trees, they can be kept into low and perma- 

 nent shape, just as well as an Osage Orange or 

 Honey Locust in a hedge. The trees are rarely 

 allowed to grow above fifteen or twenty feet high, 

 but wine to the amount of a quarter to half a barrel 

 per tree is the usual average. The second year 



