222 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



1871 



were good and as cheap as other food, as they cer- 

 tainly might be if grown in the open air. 



But until better kinds are obtained, every family 

 having a rod of land might and should have a sup- 

 ply of those kinds that grow well and ripen in the 

 vicinity. The owners will thus acquire a taste, a 

 desire for the fruit and gei acquainted with the 

 management of the vine, and will be prepared and 

 eager to engage in the propagation and production 

 of better grapes when they can be obtained. Such 

 grapes with hardy and healthy vines, will cover 

 many of the prairies of the west before many years 

 and will enable it with its fertile soil, dry atmos- 

 phere and warm summers, to. give us an abundance 

 of luscious fruit and pure wine to gladden the heart 

 and strengthen the frame. 



The Foreign and Native Vine Compared. 



By J. S. LipPiNCOTT, Haddonfield, N. J. 



It is well known to intelligent growers of the Eu- 

 ropean vine, that it is not the cold of our winters 

 nor the heat of our summers, in the middle lati- 

 tudes, at least, of the United States, that oft'er the 

 greatest impediment to the growth of the Black 

 Hamburg, Chasselas, &c., out of doors in the oijen 

 border. In seasons in which the due proportion of 

 moisture is present, good crops of these fine varie- 

 ties have been grown in the open air ; but if the 

 next season has been dry, the leaves have fallen ; 

 the fruit has shrivelled ; and frequently the year 

 following has found the plants injured beyond re- 

 covery. Even the most favored aspects in the city 

 of Philadelphia, will not permit the continued 

 growth of the foreign vine out of doors, as we have 

 learned by personal experiment, in several in- 

 stances. 



Most of our native varieties, when grown in the 

 vineyard, exposed to drying winds of our summers, 

 or to the sudden cold of our varying June, July 

 and August nights, suffer in the same manner as 

 does the foreign vine, as we have observed by com- 

 parison of eflfects upon both, under the same influ- 

 ences, side by side. The constitutions of the Euro- 

 pean and American grape vines have much in com- 

 mon. They open their buds under the same tem- 

 perature in spring, require the same increments of 

 summer heats for their healthy growth, the same 

 autumnal warmth for the perfect maturation. They 

 also demand the presence of greater or less propor- 

 tions of moisture around them at critical periods, 

 and a considerable quantity at all times ; though, 

 in these respects, the foreign vine is not disposed to 

 endure extremes so well as does its less refined 

 brother of the West ; and the less refined, the more 

 enduring among our natives, as is shown by the 

 comparatively healthy growth of the Concord and 

 Clinton, and the pre-eminent sensibility to at- 



mospheric changes exhibited by the Catawba, the 

 Delaware and the Rebecca. 



In Europe the vine has been known for ages to 

 have been peculiarly the growth of definite climat- 

 ic conditions, and its zones have been pretty accu- 

 rately defined. The same appears to have been the 

 case with American native vines, and its zones ; if 

 successful culture could be as clearly defined, were 

 the conditions of moisture in the air, the same aa 

 those of Western Europe, or as constant in their 

 proportions, and the climate as equable, or as free 

 from extremes here as in the Western States of Eu- 

 rope. Even in the " Land of the Vine," all sea- 

 sons are not alike propitious, and it is sometimes 

 seriously injured, but never is it so utter a failure 

 as with us. If the vine fails for one season in Eu- 

 rope, it may be succeeded by a season of extraordi- 

 nary yield, repairing the loss of former years. But 

 here the loss of the crop is accompanied by loss of 

 the leaf, and consequent enfeebling of the plant, so 

 that it seldom bears again. 



The season of 1863 was very propitious to the 

 vine in many parts of the United States, and held 

 out promises of success in the growth of many new 

 varieties of grapes. The vines were young, had 

 grown admirably even, in consequence of a combi- 

 nation of circumstances highly favorable ; a greater 

 product of superior grapes was exhibited than had 

 ever before gladdened our eyes, or filled us "with 

 visions of the to be." The three following years 

 told another tale over a large part of the interior 

 of the Northern States. The favoring circum- 

 stances did not attend at our bidding ; the vines 

 having grown well the preceding season, did their 

 best in 1864 ; they observed the call of temperature 

 to the degree pre-arranged for their awakening ; 

 they spread their leaves and opened their bloom at 

 the appointed time and promised still better than 

 in the past ; and that promise would have been ful- 

 filled had there not come on the wings of the West- 

 erly wind a blast which struck the tender leaves, 

 shrunk up their expanding growths, lapped up with 

 its thirsty tongue the life-sap ol their vessels, and 

 brought death into the little world of life, and with 

 it the seeds of mildew and rot, which rioted on the 

 small relics of vitality, and our hopes vanished like 

 the mist into thin, dry air. The next season found 

 the finest Delawares, Rogers, &c., entirely destroy- 

 ed, even to the root. The vines that survived were 

 again prostrated by the unpropitious seasons of 

 1865 and 1866, until of ours, very few are now liv- 

 ing, or if living have made any growth, except the 

 Concord and Clinton, which we consider scarcely 

 worth retaining in our grounds. 



It may be asked "how do you know that the air 

 was thus dry in each of these seasons, and that this 

 dryness was the tending or predisposing cause of 

 our failure?" We answer that the dryness or moi»- 



