GROWING GRAPES UNDER GLASS. 



717 



the houses 18 feet wide and of various lengths. The 

 preparation of borders, method of planting, and general 

 care and culture of vines under glass has been 

 so thoroughly gone over from time to time that 

 it seems unnecessary to repeat it. Certainly, 

 no one can expect to succeed in this work 

 -without first giving the subject careful study 

 and attention, and there must also be a large 

 amount of enthusiasm and love for the work, to 

 insure the continued care and culture abso- 

 lutely necessary if satisfactory results are at- 

 tained In this country, with its great advan- 

 tages of longer days and more sunshine in the 

 early part of the year, grapes can be grown 

 under glass much easier than in England. I 

 find elaborate preparation of borders not at all 

 necessary here, as vines will do well in any 

 good, well-drained garden soil, provided they 

 are abundantly fed from the surface during 

 their period of growth. 



My first vinery was started in 1884, and 

 -was 28 feet in length, giving room for 6 vines ; 

 and I selected 6 different varieties of grapes, as 

 follows: Grizzly Frontignan, Royal Muscadine, 

 Muscat Hamburg, Barbarossa, Black Ham- 

 burg and Muscat of Alexandria. 



Grizzly Frontiffnan is a beautifully mottled 

 pink grape — quite a deep pink when grown to 

 perfection — and its long and slender clusters 

 often weigh two pounds. In quality and flavor 

 it is unsurpassed by any other grape ; is early, 

 following closely on Black Hamburg, but un- 

 like that variety, it will not hang upon the vine 

 for any length of time after it is ripe with- 

 out shriveling. One vine of it is almost in- 

 dispensable where early grapes are desired. 



Royal Muscadine. — An early white grape 

 of fair quality and good habit, but on account 

 of the superior quality of other varieties, I do 

 not regard it with high favor, and intend to re- 

 place it with a cane of Muscat Hamburg now 

 growing beside it. 



Muscat Hamburg (fig. 4) is in great favor 

 with me, on account of its bountiful crops of 

 fruit of the best quality. It is a black grape, 

 having beautiful, tapering clusters, almost al- 

 ways heavily shouldered and often weighing 

 three or four pounds. It requires careful and 

 attentive treatment, first to get it to set fruit 

 well, and then to bring it to perfection with- 

 out shanking or shriveling. One of my vines 

 is carrying 19 clusters — about 60 pounds of 

 fruit — on 20 feet of cane, and is still throwing 

 out vigorous laterals. This is a heavier load 

 than I care to give a vine with this length of 

 cane, but the vigorous condition of this one has 

 caused the clusters to grow much larger than 

 we expected. Fully three-fourths of the clusters were 

 removed, and three-fourths of the berries were taken 



from the clusters that remained. For several years the 

 vine has produced crops ouite as heavy as this one, but 



Fig. 4.— a Muscat Hamburg at Mr. Dunning': 



hereafter I shall not allow any of my vines to bear more 

 than two pounds of fruit to a foot of cane. By thinning 



