390 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
I might make a list for you of “ the valley of the lower fox,” 
in which the cultivators here could probably point to varieties at 
which they would laugh, and justly. My opinion then is, that no 
one in any locality can make a list for another locality that will 
surely succeed, and my advice in this matter to any one who desi¬ 
res to plant the grape without experimenting in varieties, would 
be, to consult some one in his near vicinity who has had exper¬ 
ience, and then follow his recomendations. And 1 caution you 
to take the advice of no traveling stranger who has plants of un¬ 
tried varieties to sell, and who “knows they will succeed here 
because they have in New York, Ohio,” or some other locality. 
And yet it is by experimenting that the choice grape suited to 
any locality must be found, and those who have the time, taste 
and inclination should do this without hesitation. Those who 
have been doing it in late years, are now in many instances richly 
repaid for their perseverence. 
GATHERING THE FRUIT. 
Gathering the grape before it is ripe is the too common prac¬ 
tice. Grapes thoroughly ripe are seldom found in the market. The 
reasons for this are various. Naturally we become impatient for 
the harvest, after so much watching and waiting for the ripening 
of the fruit. The demand for early grapes, and the desire to be 
first in the market and thus command a high price is a great in¬ 
ducement to the gathering of unripe fruit with those who raise it 
for the market. 
Again, many suppose them ripe because they are colored and 
appear to be ripe, when in fact they have only begun the ripening 
process. Others gather unripe grapes from necessity, the culture 
given them having been such that they can never ripen. 
Most varieties change their color fifteen or twenty days before 
they become fully ripened. Now the grape is a fruit that must be 
matured in perfection on the vine or not at all. When the fruit 
is ripe the stem of the cluster near or at its junction with the shoot 
will be found brown and drying, or, properly, ripening. It is safe 
now to gather it as ripe fruit, but far better to err, if at all, on the 
side of over-ripeness, for such fruit will keep much better than 
. that not fully ripe, and some varieties are greatly improved in 
their mellow richness, by a few additional days on the vine. 
