GRAPES 
Fig. 1. Characteristic Old Scuppernong Trunk. 
Circumference seven feet six inches. (F. C. 
Reimer, North Carolina Experiment Station.) 
when it becomes very old; also the pro- 
duction of aerial roots when trained on 
arbors. The vine can be quite readily 
distinguished from the dark-fruited vari- 
eties by the light-colored ends and nodes 
of the young shoots, the whitish or light- 
green tendrils and new growths of the 
aerial roots. 
The flowers are perfect, and appear 
during June in North Carolina. Flowers 
(and fruit) are borne on the new wood, 
and not on the old wood, as some of our 
popular writers have stated. The clus- 
ters vary considerably in size, containing 
from one to 25 berries, usually being 
much larger on sandy than on clay soils. 
The berries are round, large, often be- 
coming an inch in diameter; the color 
varies from pale green to golden russet; 
skin thick but tender for a Muscadine. 
The pulp is tender, juicy, with a sweet, 
rich, characteristic aromatic flavor; and 
the quality is very good, especially when 
grown on sandy soils. The chief defects 
of this grape are the readiness with 
which the berries shatter from the clus- 
ter when fully ripe, and the irregularity 
of ripening of the berries even on the 
same cluster. The ripening period covers 
2—29 
1105 
the entire month of September in North 
Carolina. 
The Scuppernong is distinctly a wine 
grape. It makes a rich, light-colored 
_ wine, which has no superior among sweet 
wines. The large plantings in this state, 
some of which cover from 100 to 600 
acres, were made primarily for wine pro- 
duction. A bushel of fruit will produce 
from three to four gallons of wine. 
It is also a good table grape when 
used soon after gathering; but as the 
skin is often broken in picking, where 
the stem is attached, the fruit sours 
readily during warm weather. It cannot 
be shipped successfully except when 
used for making wine. | 
This is distinctly a grape for sandy 
soils, and should never be planted ex- 
tensively on heavy clay. It is more pro- 
ductive, and the clusters and berries are 
larger, more juicy and of better quality 
on sandy or sandy-loam soils than on 
clay soils. 
VARIETIES OF GRAPES FOR TEXAS 
There is no fruit which is so generally 
grown in Texas as the grape. There is 
no considerable area for which there may 
not be selected a few kinds which are 
suited to the soil and local conditions, 
and hence produce abundantly. For the 
eastern portion of the Coast District, 
the Niagara does well almost universally. 
It seems to be short-lived, hence a few 
vines should be planted every few years 
to keep up the vineyard. Black Spanish, 
or Lenoir, and also Herbemont, do well 
in this area. Concord fruit does well, 
as a rule, but does not ripen its berries 
evenly in the cluster. 
In Eastern Texas the varieties named 
for the east coast do well, and a long 
list of others. For the southwest, or 
semi-arid coast, from Rockport on south- 
west and south, and for some miles to 
the interior, most all the leading com- 
mercial varieties of grapes do well. They 
are also designated in our horticultural 
literature as European varieties. The 
southwest coast of the semi-arid belt is 
well adapted for producing such varieties 
as the Malaga, Flame Tokay, Black 
Hamburg and a number of other leading 
