1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



221 



mt ^imgarir. 



Vineyard Work for September. 



IJv TnE Associate Editor. 



There will not be much work to be dom: this 

 month in the vinL'j'unl if Iho vines have had proper 

 attention last month, anil the ground kept clean 

 and well cultivateil. In fact from this period out 

 there shciuld be nothing done to stimulate growtli, 

 but ratlier retard it, so the wood will mature well 

 and be tlioroughly ripened, that it may withstand 

 the winter better. 



Although the vines need but little attention, yet 

 it will be a very busy time with tlie vineyardist to 

 gather his grapes in proper season and sell them or 

 to make into wine. If to be made into wine they 

 should be left on the vines iintil they are thorough- 

 ly ripened, and then gathered only in dry weather, 

 after the dew is off and all defective berries re- 

 moved. Then crushed or mashed, pressed and 

 made into sweet or fermented wine as you may de- 

 sire, without the addition of either sugar or water, 

 for we liave no more faith in their use in the man- 

 ufacture of wine, than we have in the administra- 

 lion of medicine in health, for both are not only 

 iseless but injurious. 



Urapes.— Forel$;u and Native. 



By George Haskell, Ipswich, Masp. 



Ed. Pomologist and G.^rdener : — The grape 

 s the king of fruits. When sweet and well ripen- 

 d no other fruit is so luscious, healthful and nutri- 

 ious. Indeed, in the large grape-cure establish- 

 uents in the south of Europe the patients— invalids 

 -eat little else but grapes for weeks, and as many 

 8 eight pounds per day are often eaten by one per- 

 on, who recovers and grows fat on them. But it 

 lakes one shiver to think of eating one quarter 

 •art of that quantity of the Delaware, Concord, or 

 ny other kind grown in this country. We have 

 ere, however, all the best grapes of Europe, but 

 ur atmosphere is so loaded with the spores of mil- 

 ews and rusts that they cannot be grown in any 

 art of the country, this side of the Rocky Jloun- 

 lins, except under glass. They are thus grown in 



the older states for family use, and to some extent 

 for market, but only the Black Hamburgh can be 

 grown for sale at a profit. The muscats do not set 

 well, and are more injured by cool and cloudy 

 weather, even under glass; and the Frontignacs 

 are poor growers and poorer bearers. An<.l al- 

 though the earth does not yield a more luscious 

 fruit than the Grisley Frontignacyctno market gar- 

 dener could get a dime for a dollar in raising it for 

 sale. If we had a grape nearly as good as the foreign 

 that would grow well in the open air, there is no 

 limit to the extent to which it could be profitably 

 grown for eating, for drying and for wine. If good 

 and well ripened it could be eaten in large quanti- 

 ties without injury to the stomach or bowels as a 

 healthy and stimulating food, instead of the vast 

 amount of dead flesh which is now devoured. 



Shall we get such a grape from the many and va- 

 ried experiments which are now in progress in dif- 

 ferent parts of tills country ? I think so ; I have 

 no doubt of it. In a few years we .shall obtain 

 vines that will withstand the evil influences of our 

 climate — the cold of winter and mildew of summer 

 — and bearing fruit equal to the foreign. My ex- 

 periments, carried on through the last fifteen years, 

 justify this prediction ; for though they have not 

 yet produced the desired grape, I think they h.ave 

 taught me how to proceed to get it. I have raised 

 more than a thousand hybrids from more than fifty 

 different crosses, of different native and foi-eign 

 vines, and having J^ and J;^ foreign blood. More 

 than one hundred are in fruit this season, and more 

 than forty of them for the first time. Some of those 

 that have fruited before have healthy vines and 

 poor fruit, and some quite good fruit, but vines 

 .subject more or less to mildew, but not more so 

 than the Concord, which grows by their side. The 

 North-eastern states, however, can never succeed in 

 growing grapes as a general or wine crop. The 

 average heat of our summer is too low, and our at- 

 mosphere is too moist for the production of the 

 richest juice and highest flavor. If we can grow 

 enough for our people to eat we shall be fortunate, 

 for each person would eat a great many if they 



