CURRANT-GRAPE GROWING. 7 
out. the general difference between them. In such comparison, how- 
ever, the description of the Panariti variety should be considered 
instead of that given of the Black Corinth. 
CURRANT GRAPES SUCCESSFULLY GROWN IN THIS COUNTRY. 
The viticultural investigations of the United States Department of 
Agriculture have demonstrated that the choicest varieties of these 
currant grapes, which formerly it was believed could not be made 
to bear sufficiently, can be made to produce regular and good crops. 
This paves the way for the establishment of another very important 
and extensive grape industry in this country. 
An exceedingly important feature is that the currant grapes are 
among the very earliest to ripen; in fact, they ripen so early that 
they can be dried and put away before the earlest rains occur in 
districts where other raisin varieties are too late in ripening. In the 
present raisin sections of this country currants can be grown as an 
advance crop and cured and stored by the time other raisin grapes 
ripen, so that the same labor employed in harvesting and curing 
currant grapes can harvest and cure the other raisins after having 
accomplished that work. 
Though exceptional difficulties were encountered in growing the 
choicer strains, the knotty parts of this problem have been solved. 
Two cardinal points must be observed in order to grow them suc- 
cessfully: They should be grafted on phylloxera-resistant stocks 
congenial to them and suited to the soil and other conditions in 
which they are grown, and the vines need to be thoroughly ringed at 
the proper time. (See Pls. IV and V.) 
The experiments made by the United States Department of Agri- 
culture at the Fresno Experiment Vineyard indicate that when 
vines of the currant grape are planted at distances the equivalent 
of 8 by 8 feet apart, as Vinifera vineyards usually are, an acre of . 
good vineyard in this country will yield from 6 to 15 tons (an 
average of 104 tons) of grapes, or, conservatively, from 2 to 5 
tons of cured currants. From this it will be seen that 3,400 to 
8,500 acres would be necessary in order to produce the 34,000,000 
pounds which normally are annually imported, and no doubt the 
consumption could be very much increased beyond its present 
limits. - 7 
CONDITIONS SUITED TO CURRANT-GRAPE CULTURE. 
All of the good vineyard soils in the Vinifera regions of the 
United States are. probably suitable for currant-grape growing. 
The congeniality tests of Panariti grapes on phylloxera-resistant 
stocks, of which mention is made later, have demonstrated that this 
variety will do well on a sufficient number of stocks to permit a 
