CURRANT-GRAPE GROWING. 7 



out the general difference between them. In such comparison, how- 

 ever, the description of the Panariti variety should be considered 

 instead of that given of the Black Corinth. 



CURRANT GRAPES SUCCESSFULLY GROWN IN THIS COUNTRY. 



The viticultural investigations of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture have demonstrated that the choicest varieties of these 

 currant grapes, which formerly it was believed could not be made 

 to bear sufficiently, can be made to produce regular and good crops. 

 This paves the way for the establishment of another very important 

 and extensive grape industry in this country. 



An exceedingly important feature is that the currant grapes are 

 among the very earliest to ripen;- in fact, they ripen so early that 

 they can be dried and put away before the earliest rains occur in 

 districts where other raisin varieties are too late in ripening. In the 

 present raisin sections of this country currants can be grown as an 

 advance crop and cured and stored by the time other raisin grapes 

 ripen, so that the same labor employed in harvesting and curing 

 currant grapes can harvest and cure the other raisins after having 

 accomplished that work. 



Though exceptional difficulties were encountered in growing the 

 choicer strains, the knotty parts of this problem have been solved. 

 Two cardinal points must be observed in order to grow them suc- 

 cessfully: They should be grafted on phylloxera-resistant stocks 

 congenial to them and suited to the soil and other conditions in 

 which they are grown, and the vines need to be thoroughly ringed at 

 the proper time. (See Pis. IV and V.) 



The experiments made by the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture at the Fresno Experiment Vineyard indicate that when 

 vines of the currant grape are planted at distances the equivalent 

 of 8 by 8 feet apart, as Vinifera vineyards usually are, an acre of 

 good vineyard in this country will yield from 6 to 15 tons (an 

 average of 10^ tons) of grapes, or, conservatively, from 2 to 5 

 tons of cured currants. From this it will be seen .that 3,400 to 

 8,500 acres would be necessary in order to produce the 34,000,000 

 pounds which normally are annually imported, and no doubt the 

 consumption could be very much increased beyond its present 

 limits. 



CONDITIONS SUITED TO CURRANT-GRAPE CULTURE. 



All of the good vineyard soils in the Vinifera regions of the 

 United States are probably suitable for currant -grape growing. 

 The congeniality tests of Panariti grapes on phylloxera-resistant 

 stocks, of which mention is made later, have demonstrated that this 

 variety will do well on a sufficient number of stocks to permit a 



