1871 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



309 



m limgarir. 



vineyard for December. 



By ths Associate Editor. 



There is not much out-door work that can be 

 done this month uuless the weather is very mild, 

 then all the work left undone last month may be 

 continued. Grubbing out land for new vineyards 

 may be continued all winter in protected places 

 where the ground does not freeze too hard. Prun- 

 ing in mild weather and making cuttings may be 

 done. We have even planted vines this month 

 with good success in mild weather. Trellis can 

 also be built, or at least the materials may be pre- 

 pared and ready to put up. Leave nothing undone 

 which can be done in the fall, for in the spring you 

 will find but little time with your other hundred 

 necessities. 



Never allow your work to push you, for it is an 

 old maxim and a true one that " a stitch in time 

 saves nine." See that your wine is kept well 

 bunged and do not be in a hurry to rack it off until 

 It becomes perfectly clear. If it does not clear 

 itself — it will be found generally to lack tannin 

 and has not been properly made ; White Concord 

 wine has this fault which makes it so turbid and 

 unpalatable ; no refined taste can tolerate such a 

 beverage. We have never yet seen wine fermented 

 on the skins which did not become clear if prop- 

 erly handled afterwards. 



On wine making there is so much said and little 

 understood that we cannot do it justice in these 

 short notes, but simply hint at some of the few 

 general principles. 



We would suggest to those planting grapes for 

 wine not to plant the Concord; while it makes a 

 passable wine it is far inferior to Ives' Seedling in 

 every respect, except perhaps in quantity per acre, 

 but in every essential principle it is very far in 

 advance of the Concord. As we .suggested last 

 month that the art of wine making is in the proper 

 blending of the essential principles found in the 

 varieties and not in any one grape, except perhaps 

 a few not adapted to general cultivation. 



Culture of Grapes In Graperies, No. 3. 



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



As a variety of the plan of making the border, 

 drainage and foundation of your grapery, another 

 phase is given, which in some places will lessen the 

 expense, as no excavation is to be made. It consists 

 of the essentials of Fig. 3, with the exception of the 

 excavation. The material used is brought to the 

 site of the grapery and piled on the natural undis- 

 turbed surface of the ground. This will enable 

 one to build anywhere, irrespective of the soil or 

 other relative disadvantages of like nature, where 

 the cartage of material is asmall object. On this plan, 

 the dimensions of the vinery being marked out, the 

 walls of the house, whether of wood, stone, or brick, 

 are built directly from the natural surface to the glass 

 work, and the drainage material piled on the sur- 

 face, suiflciently deep to secure dryness, or to the 

 distance allowed for it in building the walls; 

 the outside mound or grass plot being built of 

 inferior soil, while two feet deep is filled in with 

 the rich mingled soil of the border ; thus arrang- 

 ing the whole foundation work and border just as 

 one pleases, and with an accuracy not always at- 

 tainable by any other mode. As a guide to the rela- 

 tive sizes, suppose a span-roof house to be built. 

 Let the size of the house be 20x50, or 23x100 feet ; for 

 this drive stakes, then outside of these drive other 

 stakes, as the mound is desired to be 6, 10 or 15 

 feet, wider than the first stakes. Allow fifteen 

 inches for drainage material, composed of coarse 

 sand, gravel, stone or broken brick, cinders of fur- 

 naces, or any other most convenient and suitable 

 articles ; build the walls and complete the rest as 

 suggested by the data already given. 



The last remark is mainly for inside border. 

 For outside border, you extend the work outside of 

 the building at leastthirty feet, enrich it, and make 

 it as described for the inside of the house — fertile, 

 yet not over rich. 



At this point please notice that a border two feet 

 deep is recommended as sufficient ; for the Euro- 

 pean border of six feet deep may be considered not 



