GRAPE VINE. 69 
climate, that fruit of larger. size :and better flavor is pro- 
duced in English graperies than can be found in even the 
most highly favored climates where the fruit ripens in the 
open air.. By the skillful application of artificial heat, 
ripe grapes in great perfection are produced in many vin- 
eries during every month in the year, in endless succession. 
The productiveness of the grape-vine may: be increased 
to an almost unlimited extent, an’ example of which is 
furnished in the much celebrated Black Hamburgh vine in 
the grapery attached to the royal gardens at Hampton 
Court, which, in a single season, has produced 2200 bunches 
averaging a pound each,-making in all nearly a ton.* 
Another vine in England, at Valentine in Essex, has pro- 
duced 2000 bunches of nearly the same average weight. 
It occupies above 147 square yards, whilst that.at Hamp- 
ton Court is spread over 160 square’ yards, one of its 
branches measuring 114 feet in length. Where the climate 
and other circumstances are favorable, the age attained by 
grape-vines is almost unlimited. Pliny mentions one 600 
years old and still bearing in his time. 
Most of those who have attempted the cultivation in the 
United States of foreign grapes. in the open air have met 
with discouraging results. The. White Sweetwater and 
Black Hamburgh are almost the only varieties which will 
give crops in the open air in the Southern States, or in 
sheltered situations and gardens in the city of Philadelphia. 
Dr. R. T. Underhill, of New York, states that after 
having sunk thousands of dollars in attempts to raise the 
best foreign varieties of grapes in the open air, he has 
abandoned the project as.visionary, and entirely devoted 
* This vine is sometimes called even in books a Red Hamburgh. But 
there is, in fact, no such particular variety of grape as the Red Hamburgh, 
that so called being strictly the Black Hamburgh imperfectly ripened. 
