1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



285 



m 8imgartr, 



vineyard Work Tor November and ^Vine 

 Grapes. 



Bt the Associate Editor. 



The work this mouth will be but little differeut 

 from last. Vineyards may now be planted and 

 much time gained over spring planting' Set your 

 vines of all strong growing kinds as Concord, Ives 

 and Norton 8 feet by 8 each way. Vines not set 

 out should be well heeled in for winter quarters. 

 This is an excellent month to prune your vines ; 

 prune long, for it is better to have too much wood 

 than too little, for the quantity of fruit can be re- 

 duced at the first summer pruning after all danger 

 is over. This advice would have saved us last sea- 

 son many hundred dollars. Cuttings should also 

 be made and planted out or well heeled in before 

 they dry. Layers not yet taken up should be 

 attended to at once before the ground become fro- 

 zen. 



ESSEKTIAL QUALITIES OF A WINE GRAPE. 



The Concord ia still the leading grape to plant 

 for market, and will be no doubt, for years to come 

 but we fear it will never become popular for wine 

 from the present system of wine-making. Wine 

 made from the Concord when it marks on the 

 must scixle 75 to 80 degrees, makes too harsh and 

 unpalatable wine to ever become popular, although , 

 some contend it can be made so by the addition of 

 sugar and water. We have no faith in such a sys- 

 tem. If wine were made up simply of sugar and 

 water, that method might be correct ; but this is 

 not the case, for when you reduce the acid by water 

 you reduce every essential principle of the grape, 

 and the result is you have a fiery wine without 

 aroma and boquet. The Concord being too harsh 

 for a delicate wine, it must be grown on a suitable 

 soil and location and thoroughly ripened to make a 

 good wine. This season our Concord must marked 

 105, Ives 109, and Norton's Virginia 129 degrees. 

 By obtaining must of a high saccharine quality we 

 reduce the acid and increase every essential princi- 

 ple in like proportion and give age, smoothness 

 aroma and high boquet to our wines. The art of 



wine-making is not in finding a grape possessing 

 iiU tlie essential qualilies, but in blending in a prop- 

 er proportion all the good qualities of the dif- 

 ferent grapes to give the proper quality and aroma 

 desired. 



This is wherein wc have failed in meeting the 

 demand of a refined taste with our American 

 grapes. Wine -making is no more natural than 

 cooking. We mix, season and cook our food to 

 make it palatable to onr taste ; so we should mix in 

 various proportions our different grapes to make a 

 delicate, pleasing, boquet wine. 



We want no rough stimulant or harsh medicinal 

 wine for general use in a refined age. 



Culture of Grapes In Graperies^ No. 3. 



By S. J. Parker, M. D., Ithaca, New York. 



In our article of last month we spoke of some of 

 the plain features of growing grapes under glass. 

 We did not overpraise the flavor of foreign grapes. 

 Flavor is the general term for the strongest taste in 

 a grape ; aroma is the second or surprise taste, that 

 charmingly comes in after the first pleasurable sen- 

 sation is over. In both of these respects the best 

 kinds of foreign grapes exceed all native grapes. 

 We are sorry to say, much as has been done for 

 American grapes, we have none to compare with 

 Muscat of Alexandria, that large old grape ; or 

 with Chasselas Ma.sque, or Must-Chasselas, which, 

 though liable to crack open, yet should be in every 

 grapery, or with that grape now expelling by its 

 superior excellence the old Black Hamburg, namely 

 the Muscat Hamburg. These are samples of sweet- 

 ness, flavors and aromas of the highest value, 

 and we would have every grape grower learn in his 

 own grapery what they are. They are educators 

 of aromas and flavors. What varieties may be 

 made tastefully to ornament the grounds of any 

 mansion, can be seen by any one of numerous de- 

 signs we could give. But they are somewhat cost- 

 ly, though beautiful. 



They would give us very neat lines of beauty in 

 the shape and arrangement of glass work, an effect 



