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Page 22
As I have said before, our cultivated grapes are derived from
several native species found growing wild, and some now valued
highly for wine-making are nothing but wild grapes domesticated;
as, for instance, Norton's Virginia, belonging to the oestivalis
class. The original plant of this variety was found growing upon
an island in the Potomac by Dr. Norton, of Virginia.
The species from which the greatest number of well-known grapes is
obtained is the Vitis labrusca, the common wild or fox grape,
found growing in woods and thickets, usually where the ground is
moist, from Canada to the Gulf. The dark purple berries, averaging
about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, ripen in September,
and they contain a tough, musky pulp. Yet this "slip of
wilderness" is the parent of the refined Catawba, the delicious
Brighton, and the magnificent white grape Lady Washington--indeed,
of all the black, red, and white grapes with which most people are
familiar. Our earliest grapes, which ripen in August, as well as
some of the latest, like the Isabella, come from the labrusca
species. It is said that the labrusca class will not thrive in the
extreme South; and with the exception of the high mountain slopes,
this appears reasonable to the student of the vine. It is said
that but few of this class will endure the long hot summers of
France. But there are great differences among the varieties
derived from this native species. For example, the Concord thrives
almost anywhere, while even here upon the Hudson we can scarcely
grow the Catawba with certainty. It is so good a grape, however,
that I persist in making the effort, with varying success; but I
should not recommend it, or many of its class, for those
localities not specially suited to the grape.
I will now name a few varieties which have proved to be, or
promise to be, the most thrifty and productive whereever grapes
can be grown at all the labrusca class: Black--Concord, Wilder,
Worden, Amenia, Early Canada, Telegraph or Christine, Moore's
Early. Red-Wyoming, Goethe, Lindley, Beauty, Brighton, Perkins
(pale red), and Agawam. White--Rebecca, Martha, Alien's Hybrid,
Lady Pocklington, Prentiss, Lady Washington. These are all fine
grapes, and they have succeeded throughout wide areas of country.
Any and all are well worth a trial; but if the grower finds that
some of them are weak and diseased in his grounds, I should advise
that he root them out and replace them with those which thrive.
The Niagara is highly praised, and may make good all that is
claimed for it.
Of the aestivalis class I can recommend the Cynthiana and the
Herbemont, or Warren, for the extreme South. Both of them are
black. There are new varieties of this vigorous species which
promise well.
The cordifolia species promises to furnish some fine, hardy, and
productive grapes, of which the Amber is an example. The Elvira, a
pale yellow grape, is highly praised by Mr. Hussman. Although the
Bacchus is distinctively a wine grape, I have already said that
its flavor, when fully ripe, was agreeable to me. The only
difficulty in growing it is to keep the ground poor, and use the
pruning-knife freely.
I have enlarged on this point, for I wish to direct the mind of
the reader to the fact that there are many very hardy grapes. I
congratulate those who, with the taste of a connoisseur, have
merely to sample until they find just the varieties that suit
them, and then to plant these kinds in their genial soil and
favored locality.
At the same time I should like to prevent others from worrying
along with unsatisfactory varieties, or from reaching the
conclusion that they can not grow grapes in their region or
garden. Let them rather admit that they can not raise some kinds,
but may others. If a variety were persistently diseased, feeble,
and unproductive under good treatment, I should root it out rather
than continue to nurse and coddle it.
When mildew and grape-rot first appear, the evil can often be
remedied in part by dusting the vines with sulphur, and continuing
the process until the disease is cured, if it ever is. I have
never had occasion to do this, and will not do it. A variety that
often requires such nursing in this favored locality should be
discarded.
There is one kind of disease, or feebleness rather, to which we
are subject everywhere, and from which few varieties are exempt.
It is the same kind of weakness which would be developed in a fine
sound horse if we drove him until he dropped down every time we
took him out. Cultivated vines are so far removed from their
natural conditions that they will often bear themselves to death,
like a peach-tree. To permit this is a true instance of avarice
overreaching itself; or the evil may result from ignorance or
neglect. Close pruning in autumn and thinning out the crowding
clusters soon after they have formed is the remedy. If a vine had
been so enfeebled, I should cut it back rigorously, feed it well,
and permit it to bear very little fruit, if any, for a year.
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