GRAPE GROWING ON THE ISLANDS OF LAKE ERIE. 



391 



That spring Dudley, who had a sweet tooth, 

 planted a little patch of sorghum, and they all com- 

 bined to keep their bed of Tom Thumb pop corn 

 clear of weeds. That same pop corn, neatly tied 

 with blue ribbon, took the prize at the September 

 county fair, and who so proud as the children on 

 that long-to-be-remembered day ! 



One of their rules was never to visit the lot with- 

 out pulling up a weed or two, and their father gave 

 each of them a weeding thimble. 



They had two young paw-paw trees which they 

 planted by the brook. These trees they obtained 

 from the river bank about two miles away ; they 

 were the souvenirs of a very delightful picnic. They 

 used to make occasional excursions into the woods 

 and to the neighboring mountains with their old 

 horse, Nellie Bly, taking huge baskets of provisions 

 and coming back laden with partridge berries, win- 

 tergreen and May apples, or wild mulberry shoots, 

 sassafras, spice-wood, or young sugar nut trees for 

 their beloved pleasure ground. Then they planted 

 a fine herb bed in which they raised lavender for 

 their mother, and bee-balm which they used to im- 

 part delightful aroma and flavor to their lemonade; 

 and they had thyme and summer savory and sweet 

 basil and sage to supplement parsley, which was the 



only aromatic herb the garden furnished. They 

 tried the different varieties of gourds also, with 

 which they adorned the rocks and the rough stone 

 wall which surrounded their domain, where scarlet 

 beans, wild grape vines and bitter sweet, raised for 

 its ornamental berries, flourished in a delightful 

 tangle, loved by the birds who seemed to prefer the 

 old paddock for housekeeping purposes to any other 

 portion of the grounds. 



I never knew happier children. There was al- 

 ways something pleasant going forward in their lit- 

 tle domain, where they had a swing and seats in the 

 trees. One year their father made them a grand 

 present of a tent, and after that they scorned the 

 house except in the stormiest weather. 



Of course some of their experiments were failures, 

 as when the field mice ate all their peanuts as fast 

 as they were planted, and some of the trees died 

 now and then, when they had a solemn tree-funeral, 

 closed with a bon-fire, which was found very comfort- 

 ing to the mourners. Very likely their plantation 

 would not have found favor in the eyes of a neat 

 gardener, but to the children the one-acre lot re- 

 mains a real paradise in spite of its brambles and 

 of its weeds. 



West Virginia. Danske Dandridge. 



GRAPE GROWING ON THE ISLANDS OF LAKE ERIE. 



N ANY one of a half-dozen sep- 

 arate counts the islands of Lake 

 Erie might safely rest their claim 

 to consideration. Their history 

 is part of the story of the birth of 

 the republic. The salubrious cli- 

 mate has made them a favorite 

 summer breathing place for thou- 

 sands whose homes are scattered 

 through a wide extent of the middle west. The ex- 

 cellent fishing afforded by the great " unsalted 

 sea," makes them a rendezvous for sportsmen- 

 The stone and lime industries afford an outlet for 

 surplus commercial energy, while to the cul- 

 tivation of the vine, all these are subordinate. 

 Kelly's Island, the one of the Lake Erie group to 

 which this paper will give special attention, com- 

 prises an extent of some 2,800 acres, most of which 

 is exceedingly fertile, and which is kept under a 

 high state of cultivation. The island is a limestone 

 formation, of no very great depth of soil, as a rule, 

 except in the Sweet Valley, where, in the track of an 

 old moraine, is an alluvial deposit which consti- 

 tutes its richest portion. As an offset to this, in 

 some portions there is so thin a covering of soil 



that cultivation is not attempted, and the land is 

 given up to quarries. 



Of the entire island about twelve hundred acres are 

 now in vines, the cultivation of which, and the manufac- 

 ture of wine, constitute the chief employment of the peo- 

 ple. The population of the island is equal to about one 

 person for each acre of vineyard ; and right here it may 

 not be out of place to say, that I have rarely found a 

 community of equal extent, where there seemed to be 

 such universal and average thrift. There may not be 

 any great individual wealth, and there is no excessive 

 individual poverty. The homes are modest, but com- 

 fortable. There is land enough to afford each family a 

 homestead, and employment sufficient to enable each 

 one to make at least a comfortable living. It is to the 

 grape industry more than anything else that this happy 

 condition is due. There are few large vineyards under 

 single ownership — none, I think, of more than forty acres 

 — while the great bulk of the land so cultivated consists 

 of live acre and ten acre tracts, and from that to little 

 patches here and there in the home yards and gardens 

 wherever space and soil will allow. The principal 

 varieties grown are Concord, Catawba, Ives and Isa- 

 bella. These combine to give a long fruit season, dur- 

 ing which great quantities of grapes are shipped 

 away to various markets. The bulk of the product, how- 

 ever, is manufactured by the various wine companies 



