1909 
THE RURAIv NEW-YORKER 
755 
Hope Farm Notes 
“THE GRAPE BELT.” 
On August 3-4 the Pennsylvania Hor¬ 
ticultural Society held a meeting at 
North East. The indoor meetings were 
held in a large unfinished building 
which is to be used as a grape juice 
factory. At the evening meeting nearly 
1,500 people turned out. It was one 
of the most remarkable Summer fruit 
meetings I ever saw. Out of that great 
company probably 90 per cent depended 
for their living directly or indirectly 
upon grape growing. They knew it, 
and were rather proud of it, and this 
gave a spirit to the meeting which noth¬ 
ing else can supply. The outdoor meet¬ 
ings were held in a space covering 40 
or 50 miles. In other words, we were 
put into automobiles and carried over 
the country among vineyards, through 
orchards and along country roads until 
we had a clear idea of the appearance 
of a grape country. Brief stops were 
made now and then to 'show an orchard 
or vineyard or some method of spray¬ 
ing or pruning. At these stops some 
expert grower would explain methods 
or answer questions. It was an ideal 
way of holding a Summer meeting. I 
never attended a better one. 
I suppose that comparatively few of 
us have ever seen a vineyard district— 
that is, a section where grape growing 
is the main business. Most of us grow 
grapes in a small way, but that is very 
different from the plan of having the 
entire prosperity of a section based 
upon vineyards. I wish I could have 
had some of you with us on that bright 
August morning when we halted for 
a moment in a little grove to look 
about us. To the right Lake Erie 
stretched its sheet of blue water 40 
miles to the north. Its wave-eaten 
shores at this point were crowded with 
trees—glistening and bright after the 
recent rain. To the left inland on every 
side stretched great billows of vineyards 
—acre after acre sweeping over the 
level fields, climbing the little hills, 
dodging the low places, sweeping on 
like a sea of green to the higher hills 
which guarded the East. Here and 
there brown patches of grass or grain 
or lighter green of cabbage or corn 
appeared in this mighty ’sea, and white 
farm houses, with their orchards and 
grounds, rose above it. But sweeping 
on and on far into the distance, with 
leaves glittering as the wind turned 
them, and the sun sparkling over all 
were the thousands of acres of grape 
vines. 
I suppose that the poetry of this view 
does not appeal so much to those, who 
live among these vineyards, but to me 
it seemed like “the land of corn and 
wine”—the veritable “borderland” of 
that far-off region which means con¬ 
tentment. It did indeed seem to me 
like that, and yet when I came home 
to New Jersey and stood on our own 
hill and saw the same sun sparkling 
over the trees it seemed that here too 
was another “borderland” even nearer 
than the other. We have only a 
glimpse at a little sheet of water, and 
there is nowhere near the wealth that 
one can look over in the grape belt, 
yet this place is home and means the 
work of our own hands. I have no 
doubt our grape friends would come 
and admire our view and then go back 
and say— “After all, give me my own 
place.” 
Of course it would be useless to try 
to tell just how a vineyard is cared 
for. We might study the most valu¬ 
able essay on the subject and then 
make a flat failure at the first crisis. 
The real test of knowledge comes in 
knowing just what to do when some¬ 
thing has got to be done, and this can 
only be learned from experience. One 
expert grower told me he was gaining 
because he knew less now than he did 
20 years ago. I saw vines that were 
planted this year. Some were thorough¬ 
ly cultivated both ways, with hardly a 
weed to be seen. Others had potatoes, 
beans or even corn growing between 
the rows of vines. This latter was not 
considered the best culture, and the 
vines did not look so well. I find that 
the best growers of strawberries, 
peaches or other fruits are in favor of 
giving the young plants all the room 
they need, and keeping other crops out. 
The second year vines were grown in 
much the same way, and with the 
third year the vines are staked up and 
started at their business of bearing. 
They do not of course give a full crop 
to begin with, but they get started. I 
saw some vineyards over 30 years old, 
and was told of vines that were planted 
47 years ago—still producing paying 
crops of grapes. In fact, no one seems 
able to tell how many years a vine will 
bear. With good care it is not unlikely 
that a vine well started will live a 
full century. It is interesting to see 
how a good vineyard will add to the 
value of land. We may start with an 
acre of land worth $100. It will cost 
about $100 more in vines, labor and 
material to grow the acre to fair yield- 
wig. It is then worth at least $500 as 
an investment—that is, the net income 
will pay a very large interest on that 
figure. It is a permanent investment 
too, for year after year, so long as the 
vineyard receives proper care and feed¬ 
ing, the income will be sure. Thus a 
good vineyard of 20 to 25 acres will 
take care of a family in comfortable 
shape and more. In some cases fami¬ 
lies live in town during the Winter, 
and early in Spring move td the farm 
to follow the grapes through, their 
course from pruning to picking. It 
would seem like almost an ideal life to 
handle this beautiful crop in this way. 
Yet that might be said of anv crop in 
which a man can put his hope and 
spirit. It could 'be made true of grain, 
grass, potatoes, peaches or apples, or, 
on the other hand, if a man felt that 
he was simply driven to his work and 
had no idea of the sentiment.and beauty 
in it, the whole thing would be the 
meanest drudgery. 
The two hardest problems ■ in this 
grape business seemed to be keeping up 
the soil and fighting insects and grape 
diseases. This grape section was form¬ 
erly devoted to grain and stock farm¬ 
ing, but with the vineyards has come 
a new arrangement. Comparatively lit¬ 
tle stock is kept. One -man with 25 
acres of vineyard said he kept just one 
cow and horses enough to do the work. 
The Buffalo stock yards supply some 
manure for this region, but of course, 
the main dependence must be upon 
chemicals and green crops. Already 
some of the growers are beginning to 
ask if it will 'be possible to keep 
up the fertility of the soil. They need 
not worry. The history of every older 
section of country -shows that land has 
been kept at work producing full crops 
for centuries. The three things which 
have contributed to this result are lime, 
chemicals and green manures. I did 
not learn that these grape growers are 
using very much lime yet. At one 
point they showed nfe piles of Canada 
wood ashes ready to be put on the vine¬ 
yards. These ashes have given results 
—probably due to the lime which they 
contain. I think these growers will be 
driven more and more to the use of 
lime. As for chemicals, they are quite 
freely used. While some growers buy 
the separate chemicals, many use the 
regular mixed goods. One mixture 
used in past years is five per cent nitro¬ 
gen and eight each of phosphoric acid 
and potash. The nitrogen in this is 
largely' in the form of organic. When 
I said that tills seemed too much 
nitrogen for the grape I was told that 
some vines had been badly hurt by 
the root worm and therefore they 
wanted to grow more wood. That 
was why they used extra nitrogen. As 
for using green or cover crops the 
practice is not as general as it should 
be. Of course cultivation stops about this 
time of the year, and a crop of grass 
or weeds will come in. This adds or¬ 
ganic matter, but not as much as a 
regular crop like clover, turnips, 
vetch or rye would do. Some growers 
are sowing Crimson clover and tur¬ 
nips at last cultivation, and say the 
results are excellent. There is a sav¬ 
ing in nitrogen and the soil is kept 
open and in good heart. This practice 
is sure to grow. I wish some one who 
feels that he can afford it would drill 
two or three rows of cow peas between 
the rows of grapes, say about July 1. 
Give these cow peas thorough culture 
just as you would corn, and about the 
middle of August sow Crimson clover 
and turnips right among the cow peas 
and cultivate them in. In this way 
practically the same culture could be 
given the grapes, while the pea vines 
would add a large amount of vegetable 
matter to be plowed under. This will 
work with our fruits—I would like to 
see it tried in the grape belt. 
As for insects and diseases there is 
a constant battle against them. Here 
is a section where spraying fruit is 
generally considered just as necesssary 
as cultivation or picking. New pests 
are constantly appearing, as is always 
the case when a section is given almost 
entirely to fruit. The benefits which 
come from concentration march along 
with the soil. An expert from Wash¬ 
ington. had put up his “bug tents” and 
laboratory right in the heart of this 
grape belt. There he was at work 
studying the life habits of insects and 
the cause of plant diseases. There 
were several new pests under observa¬ 
tion. 
“Can you master them?” I asked. 
“Why, of course—just as soon as we 
are sure of their habits.” 
There may be farmers who would 
think it small business to spend days 
watching -insects or their eggs so as to 
see how they hatch, when and how they 
feed, or where they spend their spare 
time. Yet such information is at the 
very foundation of any successful cam¬ 
paign against an insect pest. You 
can’t handle humans in any such way, 
for their habits are not fixed, but an 
insect is pretty sure to go through his 
life performance on a cast-iron rule, 
and the entire scheme of fighting him 
depends upon knowing what he will 
do next or when he will do it. You 
see when a body of farmers develops 
such a great business as this of pro¬ 
ducing grapes they must have the ad¬ 
vantage of every help that science or 
art can give them. The great manu¬ 
facturers must have chemists and other 
experts always at work to learn new 
methods or. test old ones. These grape 
growers must in like manner have bug 
men, fungi men and chemists to study 
out their problems. The single farmer 
cannot do this, and it is not likely that 
an organization of farmers could or 
would have such experts. The Gov¬ 
ernment can supply them, and they do 
far better work in a place where 
farmers are organized and where large 
business is done. And this grape busi¬ 
ness is a large one. 
When I saw that great ocean of 
vines I wondered what could be done 
with all the fruit. Those hopeful 
growers laughed at me. The supply 
rarely reaches demand. There are so 
many ways in which the grapes can be 
used ! It is certainly an inspiration to 
go to such a section and see what fol¬ 
lows when any farm crop can be made 
the base of prosperity and the chief 
business of a neighborhood. I wish 
we could show and teach as much in 
our section. And the thing which came 
to me most of all as 1 watched that 
great ocean of vineyard was how much 
this section owes to the unselfish un¬ 
paid labors of one man—Ephraim W. 
Bull. In all the years that have gone 
no one has given the world a better 
commercial grape than the Concord. 
There was nothing of the “faker” or 
narrow-eyed Yankee about Mr. Bull. 
He gave the Concord to the world; it 
changed the business of grape-grow¬ 
ing and added more to the nation’s 
wealth than all the gold dug out of our 
mines. Yet, lacking the commercial 
spirit of the modern “creator” or “in¬ 
troducer,” the old man ended his days 
in poverty—dependent upon the charity 
of friends! Well, it has ever been so 
and will probably continue that no 
great, useful or uplifting work for the 
people will be made permanent except 
when some one toils through sorrow and 
trouble, unrecognized, unappreciated, 
until too late. h. w. c. 
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