PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 191 



MR. STUBENRAUCH. We had it under observation at Tulare and 

 packed at that place for five years, including this season. For four 

 years the crops were very good, but this last season the crop was not so 

 good; but the way the vines bore at that place I should say it was a 

 commercial possibility to have good crops, depending on the way they 

 were pruned. I think the only way to find that out is to have a number 

 of experimental plots in different sections and to actually study the 

 method of handling that grape in California. We could establish 

 experimental plots in different sections and have the pruning and other 

 cultural requirements studied in that way, and I am hoping to have 

 the Government take that up. I think it is so important, because there 

 isn't anything like it; we have nothing like that grape under our 

 observation. I think if we had that grape growing in California we 

 could get that splendid trade. 



MR. RIXFORD. R, B. Flowers, to whom I sent the cutting, grafted 

 them into other varieties, and he reported them as shy bearers. 



MR, STUBENRAUCH. As near as I can find out, it was a very shy 

 bearer, but they had been pruning them in the old way, and, of course, 

 probably they won't grow in every section. It is a late grape, comes 

 along with the Emperor and even later, but it is certainly worthy of 

 a very careful study. 



A MEMBER. Where can we get cuttings? 



MR, STUBENRAUCH. I think the station at Tulare has been 

 abandoned, but another plot has been established at Fresno. 



MR. ASHLEY. You can get some from Frank Swet't. 



MR. STUBENRAUCH. Yes, and George Roeding has a few. 



MR. HARTRANFT. I live in a very late district, and we are still 

 hauling in grapes. You say it is a very late grape, and probably in 

 such a late district, on the north slopes of some hills where the shadow 

 comes about half -past one or two o'clock in the afternoon, I think per- 

 haps it might be well to try them out. 



MR. STUBENRAUCH. * But try the long pruning and trellising. 



MR. WALTON. In your remarks you said there seemed to be no 

 way of determining when grapes were r^e and ready to pack and 

 ship. Is it not possible chemically or so*Je way to determine when 

 grapes are ripe? I notice in the East, when grapes are received there, 

 the market is destroyed by immature shipments in each variety. 



MR. STUBENRAUCH. You might determine the percentage of 

 sugar but that does not really tell you when the grape is ripe ; it only 

 tells you how sweet it is. I think the only way to get at that point 

 would be to make a number of experiments, taking the grapes, from 

 the vines at different stages of maturity, starting purposely with green 

 grapes, taking their sugar content and then continuing from week to 

 week or from day to day, even, but that would not give you the actual 

 time the grapes were ripe but would give you the most favorable per- 

 centage of sugar. It is especially hard to say that this grape is ripe. 

 Color, for instance, can not be relied upon to determine that point. 

 We have the Tokay at Tulare very, very poorly colored, yet the per- 

 centage of sugar was high enough. 



MR. ASHLEY. That would vary greatly in a few miles. For 

 instance, in the Lodi country the black land is three or four weeks 

 behind the sandy land, only three 6r four miles apart. 



