The Farmer and the Grapevine. 
A Neglected Yet Easily Grown Fruit. 
HY are not more grapes found in the home 
garden? If, by any chance, one is discovered 
it is almost invariably a Concord, and hardly one 
farmer in 10 throughout the country has even a 
single vine, and I don't know of one who has any 
assortment. Yet no fruit is more delicious or more 
a good crop every year, and what more attractive 
centerpiece could we have on a well-laid table than 
a big fancy dish generously filled with Wordens, 
Niagaras, and Lucilles—or any other tri-color com¬ 
bination? The vines themselves are by no means 
unsightly. x\ friend in the grape belt has a big one 
climbing over his veranda, and it compares very 
favorably with his neighbors’ more pretentious or¬ 
namental vines. 
It is not, however, the object of this article to pre¬ 
sent the money-making possibilities of grape grow¬ 
ing in southwestern New York, because the soil is 
probably better adapted to the raising of other fruits 
on a commercial scale* but experience has proven 
that, for the home table, no fruit is more easily 
accessible or a more universal favorite. 
By far the most delicious conserve I ever ate was 
composed of three pints seeded grapes, one pint 
Gathering the Grape Harvest from an Old Vine. Fig. 435. 
easily raised. A friend of mine has fully three 
bushels of fine grapes growing on one vine which 
runs over an old building and receives no care 
whatever—this, too, on the inevitable Concord. 
Granting this to be the standard variety, there can 
still be no question of the greater adaptability of 
the earlier sorts to our short seasons. We are en¬ 
tirely out of the grape belt; we couldn’t possibly 
ripen a Catawba, and Concords are uncertain, but 
the earlier varieties practically never fail to give us 
Nothing in the fruit line could be daintier or more 
acceptable to send the invalid, or indeed as gifts to 
our friends, than a pretty basket filled to overflow¬ 
ing with lucious red, white, and purple grapes, and 
we often regret that they can’t ripen by July 4th. 
From a financial point of view the possibilities of 
working up a really fancy trade seem unlimited. 
Mixed baskets are always so scarce on the market 
as to be almost prohibitive in price, and customers 
for an article so distinctly fine are sure to be plenty. 
water, one-half pound chopped raisins, eight cups 
sugar, juice of two oranges, and boiled 20 minutes. 
Choice stems of any good grapes dipped into thin 
syrup and dusted well with confectioner’s sugar 
make the prettiest and simplest dessert dish im¬ 
aginable. Indeed the list of truly delectable dain¬ 
ties made from grapes would fill a volume, and yet 
how many people do without them practically the 
year around while, by a little forethought, they 
could have them in abundance e. m. a. 
