©6T. 26 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
my own family use. I would, from my present 
■experience, prefer Requa and Massasoit, mainly 
because they are a few days earlier and more 
■nearly answer my requirements. 
•Muskegon Co., Mich. 
-- 
GRAPE LEAVES.—Ko. II 
w. C. BELLAMY. 
"CRATES FOR ALABAMA. 
The Catawba, although made so famous by 
Longworth in wine and Longfellow in poetry, 
though a fine Grape, will mot, as a general rule, 
succeed in the South. I know of no locality 
•south of the Cumber'and River and east of the 
Mississippi, where it attains even a moderate de¬ 
gree of perfection. So, iu spite of Longworth's 
success and Longfellow’s wine-inspired song, 
we of the South may as well dismiss all hope of 
it here. 
The Scupfernong and its seedlings, as men¬ 
tioned in “ Grape Leaf," No. I. are, par excel¬ 
lence, the Grapes for the South. By changing 
two words in the last stanza of Longfellow’s 
poetu, it would bo strikingly applicable to this 
Grape—thus— 
“ And this sour of the vine ; 
This greeting of mine, 
The winds and the birds shall deliver 
To the queen of the South, 
Jn her garlands dressed out, 
rOn th. •vaults of the Scuppernong River.” 
•The Cokoor.v ami Ives, well known through- 
-oiit the country .come next in fecundity and 
•nine both as wine iva/i table Grapes. Both are 
\very prolific with us—much alik —both possess¬ 
ing in & high degree that Labrnsoaor foxy flavor 
tSP peculiar to that species. The berry of the 
Iv«iis smaller than that of tbe^oncord, but the 
vine an more prolific in bunches, so that the 
■%tnal quantity of frnit from each is about 
equal. They are so nearly identical in flavor 
that the wine of one is nndistinguisbable from 
that of the other. 
The Hehbemont "Madeira —known also as 
the Devereux and Warren—should, perhaps, 
have come in before the two last mentioned, for 
it is perfectly hardy and prolific with us, subject 
to no disaster, yielding annually large crops, 
and making a wine not easily distinguishable 
from good Madeira. I had one vine of this va¬ 
riety, in Barbour County, in this State, from 
whiob I made ten gallons of wine, after having 
given away and used much of the fruit. It re¬ 
quires less pruning than the Ives or Concord, 
and delights in arbors more than in trellises. 
The Martha, a white seedling of the Con¬ 
cord, is a delicious Grape for table use, with a 
thin akin, tender pulp, and a delicate modifica¬ 
tion of the peculiar Labrnsca flavor of its 
parent. But it is neither so hardy nor prolific 
as the Concord, and will hardly ever come into 
; general nse with us as a wine Grape. 
The Iona is in every respect one of the most 
delicious Grapes we ever get in the South. Be¬ 
ing naturally of a tender and delicate constitu¬ 
tion. it attains with us, in the open rir only a 
•mntnarate degree of perfection. 
The Delaware- which might he aptly de¬ 
scribed as a miniature of the Iona—is prized 
with ns hardly more for its excellent qualities 
than for its striking bounty. When well ar¬ 
ranged in a fruit-basket, its rosy color, contrast¬ 
ing with fbo deep purple of the Concord and 
(the rich, clear yellowish green of tbs Martha, 
^produces sn effect strikingly beautiful, while the 
'berry is no less pleasing to the eye than grate¬ 
ful to the palate. 
The Salem is also a fine table Gt"-po, and, 
with reasonable care, attains a fair degree of 
perfection with ns. 
There are very few other * that are Tcrtcvtn to 
suit this section except all the seedlings of the 
Ssnppernong, of which there are map-, both 
wild and cultivated. The most popular ~f them 
■no: Thomas, Flowers, Tender Pnlp, aofi per¬ 
il ips others. All these, in strict obedience to 
what seem- a universal law with this Grape, are 
black, the parent being white. Much i-< eaid in 
praise of them, but not having cultivated any 
of them except the Thomas, I cannot give any 
personal experience beyond the fact that they 
all are hardy and prolific south of the 37th de¬ 
gree of latitude, but not so north of it. 
Foreign Grapes are only raised in the United 
States at great expense in hot-bouses. and 
bonce it has long been a great desideratum 
among vine growers to acclimate them to our 
open air. The famous Black Hamburg, that 
flourishes so well in Europe, is one of the finest 
Grapes grown, but I cannot learn of anyone in 
the L uited States who has ever grown it suc¬ 
cessfully out-ot-doora. The causos to which its 
failure hitherto has been attributed, are in¬ 
numerable. I have studied the matter closely. 
aDd experimented with the Grape for years, and 
am at last rewarded with buoco'ih in finding both 
the diJIioulty and its remedy, and I have the 
Grape now acclimated aud thriving to perfection 
in the open air. The process or means, how¬ 
ever, by which I have accomplished it I prefer 
to keep to myself; for it appears to me legit¬ 
imate that I should reap any reward there may 
be for the time, labor, aud money I have spent 
in attaining so desirable a result. I can only 
say of it here that it is purple and has a flower 
similar to that of the imported Malaga. It is 
my intention to try my acclimating process with 
the Malaga also, and with the Tokay. 
Calhoun Co., Ala. 
-♦ ■ - - 
THE PRENTISS GRAPE. 
Indeed, it has done bel ter than any of the old or 
new varieties. The frnit was fit to eat by the 
first week in September. I have crossed almost 
all the best varieties and have been raising seed- 
Of this grape, Mr. T. S. Hubbard, of Fredo- 
nia, N. Y., writes us: “ Downing says it is the 
best pure native grape he has eaten. Josiah 
Hoopes writes, speaking in high terms of it. 
Mr. Ohmeb, of Dayton, writes me it 
was seen and tested by a council of five 
good judges from Southern Ohio Fair, 
and each and all of them, including 
himself, pronounced it as promising 
to be the best of any of our Ameri¬ 
can White Grapes. Samuel Miller, 
the originator of the Martha, says jf 
isthe finest out door, white grape that 
has come under his notice. D. Bander, 
Secretary of Pleasant Valley Wine Co., 
says he showed it to several prominent 
grape growers at Haiumondsport, 
and all with himself pronounce it 
the finest white grape they ever saw, anc he says 
the foliage seems to be perfect. Barry says it 
is a handsome white grape of fine quality, and 
will no doubt rank among the best native graphs. 
M. B Bate ham thinks it of almost too good a 
quality to be healthy and reliable. My own ob¬ 
servation of it is that it is hardy, a fair grower, 
not a rank grower, with foliage as healthy as 
that of the Catawba, and a heavy bearer. 
Mr. Prentiss originated it some eight or nine 
years ago. It is a seedling of Isabella, has been in 
bearing four or five years and improves each 
year. This year be has over a ton of the frnit, 
the vines bearing at the rate of three tons per 
acre while many other varieties are bearing only 
half a crop. The neighboring vineyardists all 
agree as to its good habits, and speak very fa¬ 
vorably of it. I think it will rank atnoDg our 
best grapes and become a valuable standard 
variety."’ See illustration on 1st page. 
T The bunch from which our engraving was 
made, was not sent to us by Mr. Hubbard for 
that purpose, but merely to enable us to judge 
of its quality. This we could not fairly do as 
the grapes were not quite ripe.— Eds.] 
THE SHELBURNE GRAPE. 
Waverley Grape —(See 1 st page.) 
This is a seedling of Allen’s Hybrid, originated 
in 1869. It bore its first frnit—five clusters—in 
1872, after the hard winter preceding, having 
been pruned the previous fall and left without 
protection. This was the third year fron trans¬ 
planting and the fourth from seed. It has been 
exhibited at the Franklin county Fair, Green¬ 
field, every year since, and has repeatedly re¬ 
b'ngs for the last fifteen years, and in my experi¬ 
ence Hybrid-self-seedlings, expecially those of 
the Allen’s Hybrid, are the most productive of 
the improved hardy varieties, in spite of all theo¬ 
ries to the contrary advanced by others. I cal¬ 
culate on the principle of reversion. The Shel¬ 
burne is a case in point: the vine closely resem¬ 
bles its grandmother while the fruit is like that 
of its grandfather. I have two more like Shel¬ 
C ON CORD NO. 
ceived premiums. So far the vine has proved 
perfectly hardy aud healthy. The grape crop 
hereabouts has proved almost an entire failure 
this year on account of too much rain in August, 
when we had fifteen days of it; but the vines 
and fruit of the Shelburne have been uninjured 
1.—(See 1st page.) 
burne, of the same age, perfectly hardy and 
healthy, but ripeniug too late here. I have no 
vines for sale, because, having other business to 
attend to, I have no time to raise plants. 
Franklin Co., Mass. Jacob Stkiglkder. 
[This seems a valuable variety. The grapes 
are white, and so nearly transparent that, when 
held up to the light, the form of the seeds can 
be seen. They are of medium size, thin-skin¬ 
ned, tender flesh, small seeded and the flavor 
is sweet though sprightly and agreeable. The 
bunches are compact and the berries cling to the 
stems firmly.— Eds J See illustration, p. 681 . 
-- 
GRAPES IN WESTERN NEW YORK. 
W. J FOWLER. 
The grape crop through this Bection will be 
everywhere much iightor than usual. The May 
frosts cut the tender sboots; and probably not 
one-quarter of the buds which would have fruit¬ 
ed came into blossom. The result is that vines 
have made an immense growth wherever left 
unchecked, and even where the buds h we been 
pinched back, the foliage and fruit have been 
healthy. Varieties usually subject to mildew, 
as Adirondac, are this year exempt. This indi¬ 
cates pretty strongly that oveibearing is the 
cauBe of much of the mildew and other diseases 
so often complained of. 
Grapes ripened this year earlier than usual. 
We have had a warm summer; but, in part, this 
early ripening is due to the light crop. I learned, 
years ago, that remorsel-saly thinning Catawba 
Grapes will make even this late variety perfect 
some fruit in ordinary seasons. Where two, 
three or four buds for blossoming start, pinch 
off all but one or, at moHt, two Then, as the 
grapes attain some size, say by the middle of 
Jniy, pinch the ends of the shoots and turn the 
strength of the vine to the production of fruit. 
In this way we may make two bunches weigh as 
much as three, and ripen a week or ten days 
earlier. The thinning by the frost was of'a 
different kind. Not merely the bunches, but the 
shoots themselves were destroyed. The shoots 
which escaped did so entire. GenerallyThe part 
of the vine on the top trellis escaped, and here 
is usually where the finest bunches are found 
The season has been so extraordinary that 
little is learned about the new varieties. Almost 
aDy grape wiU ripen this year, and if it will not, 
it should be at once discarded. The Hartford 
was fair eating by the 2Slh of August, and the 
Champion was colored several days earlier. 
By the second week in September all the Rogers’ 
grapes here were ripe, and so were the Deli- 
wares, Concords and Adirondacs. The Isabella 
was rapidly turning, while the Iona and Diana 
were translucent, hut improved agodeal after¬ 
wards. The Brighton, a new grape. I have not 
seen this year. My one vine does not bear yet, 
but I hear very favorable reports from this va¬ 
riety wherever the frost did not destroy it. The 
Brighton ripens as early as the Hartford, and 
may be safely set down as the best vary early 
Grape. 
Farmers' vineyards have been more neglected 
this year than usual; but I think that the severe 
pruning last spring c rnsed them to make enough 
good wood this summer for another year. That 
the vines are generally healthy is a strung point 
for tbe future. Wu&t grape culture needs is a 
yearly thinning of the fru’t on some better plan 
thau indiscriminate cutting by the fro6t. When 
v-oes get this, half the dis-ases which now de¬ 
stroy them will be removed Even the phyl¬ 
loxera will not do so muc > damage • xcept on 
vines enfeebled by overbearing 
Monroe Co , N. y. 
GRAPE ITEMS. 
Keep Grapes in a d y, cold room. 
Tines ought to be planted at least eight feet 
apart. 
Rise soil is now generally consilerel better 
than Heavy manuring tor the h uoy Grape. 
In transplanting dig large holes, spread out 
the r 'em cureful y and cover vith due earth. 
Among the newer varieties, we have yet to 
le.r i of any that will keep oetter than. Isabella, 
Diana or Rebecca. 
Mr 0 B. Gala flu says that if has been ob¬ 
serv'd that Grapes grown upon sandy loan are 
h .vector than those grown upon city loam. He 
has tested this for the past six or eight years 
and found it invariably true. 
R. W. Hunt, of Galesburg, HI., in the Trans, 
of the L S. H. says; “the best evidence I 
can offer in behalf of tne Concord will be found 
in the markets. I think yon will there find twen¬ 
ty bushels of them to one of any or all other kinds 
during the Concord season.” 
Bad Advice —We find in tbe agricultural 
columns of the Weekly Herald the following : 
“ Vines branch :d every week with soap-suds 
flourish admirably aud extend themselves so ss 
to caver large buildings, every br.mch bearing 
fruit.” How much fruit and of what quality ? 
Graff. Rot —George W. C unp’joll says that 
he has never known the Delaware affected with 
the rot, even in the most unfavorable years. 
For many years the Concord was exempt; lately 
it is more or lesB affected in unfavorable seasons. 
Sulphur is recommended as one of the best pre¬ 
ventive!* of the rot, to be applied iu go ml 
season. 
The Southern Fox or Muscadine Grape is 
botanical ly Vitis vulpina, the original of the 
