A Grape Experiment Station* 
BY H. VON LUTTICHAU, OF EARLETON. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
This report will be confined to the ex¬ 
periment vineyard I have in charge for 
the Department of Agriculture, Division 
of Pomology. 
I leave to the other members of your 
committee to report on grapes in gen¬ 
eral. 
The object of the Department is to 
find, if possible, some varieties of Vitis 
vinifera that can be recommended for 
general planting and that may prove a 
benefit to the State. 
We cannot say that the grapes we are 
growing now in Florida, American or 
hybrids, are satisfactory. If we want a 
grape for market outside the State we 
must have one that comes as near as 
possible to the hothouse grape; for that 
we have to go to Vitis vinifera. Two 
years ago the Department invited me to 
take charge of an experiment vineyard 
or grafted Vinifera varieties to be estab¬ 
lished on my place at Earleton. Should 
I accept, the possible benefit to the State 
was apparent, and personally it could not 
fail to be of interest to me, as I have 
always been interested in the culture of 
the grape. 
Early in March two years ago I re¬ 
ceived about 500 vines of about 125 va¬ 
rieties, all grafted on Vitis riparia and 
Vitis rupestris. To attempt to grow 
Viniferas on their own roots is useless; 
they will invariably die in a year or two. 
Vitis riparia and Vitis rupestris are the 
only suitable stock for Florida. Our 
own native wild bunchgrape, a Southern 
Aestivalis, is also not suitable. The very 
close trimming necessary to produce the 
best fruit of Vitis vinifera does not agree 
with any aestivalis roots; it strengthens 
Riparia and Rupestris, but weakens all 
Aestivalis. 
The vines arrived in poor order, poor¬ 
ly rooted; naturally there were losses, 
twenty per cent, perhaps, which were re¬ 
placed by the Department the following 
year. They were set out in proper vine¬ 
yard form, a stake of fence-rail size and 
two pounds of blood and bone to each 
vine. Clean culture, in fact, extra good 
culture, was given all the time, and by 
fall the vines completely covered the 
five-foot stakes and hung down to the 
ground. No disease whatever. 
During the following winter a trellis 
of three wires was built, the vines were 
cut back to one or two good eyes and 
again fertilized with about two pounds 
of blood and bone. I had the most lux¬ 
uriant growth on these vines I ever saw; 
they covered not only the trellis, but the 
ground as well. 
They were sprayed with Bordeaux 
mixture about every ten days; the leaves 
remained perfect until fall, the wood 
ripened to the end. January last a 
