Grapes

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Contents 1 How to Grow Grapes 2 The Delaware Grape 3 The Concord Grape 4 The Iona Grape 5 Diana Grapes 6 Allen's Hybrid Grapes 7 Crevelling Grapes 8 Adirondac Grapes 9 Cultivating Grapes 10 Planting Grapes 11 Pruning Grapes

How to Grow Grapes

The interest in the culture of out-of-door grapes has greatly increased: in every village there are many who now grow them for their own use or the market, and very many vineyards have been planted in different parts of the country in order to make wine.

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In California, grape culture and wine making seem as certain as any other kind of cultivation, whether owing to peculiarities of atmosphere or rarity of rains; but east of the Rocky Mountains, the vine has suffered from a variety of enemies, which have proved in some cases too powerful to be overcome, until many vineyards have been pulled up, and the soil devoted to other purposes. Immense efforts have been made, and are now making, to find or produce some grape which will be hardy in all sections of the country, not liable to mildew and rot, and which shall be sufficiently spirited for the table and sweet for wine.

Several grapes have been thought to have all qualities to be desired, and have been very extensively sold; but none has yet proved equally valuable in all parts of the country. If such a grape can be found, it will be an incalculable benefit to the country; but I think our cultivators ask too much, and have set too great a stint for themselves. No one grape has ever been the favorite in Europe, where there are a great variety of wines of entirely different qualities, and made from very dissimilar grapes. Some of the best wine-grapes prove very inferior for the table.

Our country affords very dissimilar soils and climates for the vine; and if man, with his infinite capability of self adaptation, finds it so difficult to move from the east to the west, and continue in the same health and vigor, do we not make an unreasonable demand on the vine.

The grape which would be perfectly satisfactory in the cool, changeable climate of New England, where we rarely have a hot moist interval in summer, so very common in Cincinnati, would find itself unable to contend with the Ohio climate; whilst, on the other hand, a grape which would find in the long, hot summer of the West the time to develop and perfect its sugar, and to ripen its wood, would be crude and unripe here: it might make a fine wine on the Ohio, and a poor vinegar in the environs of Boston.

Grapes have two distinct uses, to be eaten, and to make wine; and their value as a crop in any locality depends on the manner in which they are to be consumed. Near cities and large towns, they are most valuable for the table.

It is the rarest thing that we can buy a nicely flavored and well-ripened grape in our markets: there are plenty of sour, ill-ripened grapes, which are sold while the perfect article can rarely be purchased at any price.

In order, if possible, to ascertain what grape or grapes are really best for general culture in the Northern and Western States, and to enable me to succinctly state the most important facts about the vine and its culture, before commencing to write this article, I wrote to many of the leading cultivators of the grape in all parts of the country, asking them the same questions, as to best varieties, frequency and cause and cure of mildew and rot, best soil and method of pruning, and other similar questions.

Many varieties of grape have been discovered which blossom late enough, and ripen early enough, to escape frost; so that the chief enemies to grape-culture are black rot and mildew. The rot is more injurious at the West than the East; but, wherever it exists, it is attributed to excessive moisture, either at the root, or in the atmosphere, and to sudden changes of temperature.

It is nearly sure to come with a hot, moist condition of the air; and when these periods occur at the West, in the infancy of the berry, the crop is sure to be lost. There seems to be no cure for the disease, other than planting vines on high and dry land, and selecting those varieties of grapes whose constitution will not be affected by it.

Different grapes in the same vineyard will be affected differently, some varieties escaping entirely, when all the rest are ruined; and singularly enough the grape ruined this year may escape next.

The natural precaution is to plant in each vineyard several varieties of grape, selecting those which common experience has most often shown to have escaped the destroyer. In the East we are but little troubled by black rot. Professor Silliman finds the Catawba and Isabella rot in New Haven; Mr. W. C. Strong, the Catawba and Concord, in Brighton, Mass.; and J. Fiske Allen, the Diana, in Salem, Mass.; but these agree with other cultivators, that, at the East, the rot is not as yet a dangerous enemy. In Missouri, Mr. Huseman complains of the Catawba, Isabella, Garugues, and To Kalon, as most subject to rot and mildew; Mr. Buchanan, of the Catawba, Delaware, Norton, and Ives; 3Ir. Grider, Bethlehem, Penn., finds Concord, Maxataway, and Clinton very great sufferers, whilst the Franklin escapes from disease. On the Hudson at Sing Sing, Mr. Deliot finds Catawba, Anna, and Concord most injured.

The West has suffered more because vineyards have been more extensively planted in that region, but every cultivator at the East has lost his crop at some time by blighting diseases. Mr. Grider states that vineyards frequently escape both mildew and rot for several years; but at last their time comes nearly irrespective of locality and varieties of grape. Mildew seems to act very capriciously, attacking some plants standing near to each other in a vineyard, and leaving others of the same variety, equally near each other, untouched; sweeping off all the fruit from some variety, and leaving all of another uninjured; whilst the next year it will affect the vines left uninjured this year, its former victims escaping.

What all the causes of mildew are is not yet ascertained, though some and the worst are well known.

All agree that sudden changes of temperature, unequal currents of cold or warm air, radiation from the leaves of the plants at night when the temperature becomes unusually cold, standing water about the roots of the plants, badly drained land, are sure to cause mildew; or at least plants exposed to these conditions always suffer from mildew.

It is possible, in the cold or warm grapery, when the vines are growing rapidly and the temperature is high, to produce mildew in a few hours by leaving the sashes open so as to bring rapid currents of cold air over the surface of the leaves, but mildew under glass may be checked and removed by the free use of sulphur dusted over the leaves, and exposed on the flues. Brushing the vine over before it commences to grow with a mixture of sulphur and lime-water is found to be very beneficial. Under glass, none but careless persons need suffer from mildew; but sulphur applied out of doors is of doubtful benefit, for in the open ground we cannot control the currents of air. Professor Silliman, reasoning from the effects of cold currents of air in graperies, and from the fact that vines growing on fences or house walls rarely mildew where there is a projecting roof over them which moderates nocturnal radiation, believes that this disease can be controlled by planting vines against such supports as will enable us to throw out a light roof or shelter over the top of the vine, thus checking or retarding upward currents of air, and reducing the radiation.

This would be beneficial, but it does not cover another class of causes. Mr. Allen of Salem has frequently found grapes out of doors ruined by mildew after being enveloped for twenty-four hours in a dense fog, against which no projecting roof would be any defence. Others of the gentlemen I have referred to have found that those vines are sure to be the victims of mildew which are of weakly habit of growth, whether produced by over-pruning, overbearing, moisture, sterility of soil, or currents of air; and here I think lies the root of the matter, -mildew is a consequence of enfeebled vitality; the seeds or spores of this fungus are always floating in the air, ready to take root and develop whenever a suitble soil is ready for them: we all know that any vegetable matter laid in a damp and ill-ventilated place will become mouldy very quickly.

Vegetation suffers from fungitic growth, whenever any cause renders it sickly, weakens its vitality, suddenly checks its vital processes whether currents of air, nocturnal radiation, or excessive moisture.

As soon as the vine ceases to progress or maintain its integrity, it commences to decay; for growth and decay are simultaneous processes in all living matter, the animal absorbing oxygen and giving out carbon at the same time, and the plant doing just the opposite. When therefore from any cause you check the advancing processes of vegetation, you uncover the decaying processes to the seeds of the fungus, which is mildew or mould.

If the vine's progress is but momentarily arrested, it may start on again, and suffer but little, its leaves perhaps become spotted; but, if the adverse condition is continued long enough, the leaves and fruit are both blighted. We therefore see that there are two methods for us to pursue with the hope of ultimate success: first, so to arrange the vineyard that its aspect, shelter, soil, moisture, shall afford to the vine a perfect condition of health; second, as we can rarely insure all these conditions, we must try to produce vines'of such varieties as shall have particularly hardy constitutions, and be in themselves able to resist adverse influences.

It is a mistake in growing new varieties, which we may hope will be able to resist mildew, to suppose that the wild grape of any portion of the country is the best stock to commence with, because sometimes wild grapes suffer from these diseases, quite as much as cultivated; during the last year, for instance, wild grapes in many parts of the country were entirely cut off by mildew. We must follow the same plan which cultivators of other plants have proved to be the best, propagate from the best cultivated varieties you can get, for cultivation brings with it new diseases and conditions, and the best cultivated varieties will have overcome many dangers, which will threaten new comers from the field and forest. These considerations enforce the importance of seeking new varieties of grape adapted to particular localities; the climate of the East may be expected to attack vines from the West, and vice versa; and, whilst we may reasonably expect to produce a vine perfectly adapted to one district where the conditions are always relatively the same, it is almost impossible to believe that one can be found whose constitution can equally resist the unfavorable influences of climates and atmospheres of widely separated localities.

I will now give a list of the grapes which the gentlemen I have referred to believe to be the best for the part of the country in which they reside. The following are the six grapes on which the greatest number of persons have united; perhaps if a still larger number of persons were consulted the verdict might be different; but these gentlemen are well-known authorities in horticulture, and their opinion is as likely to be fair as that of any other set of men.

1. DELAWARE - Grant, New York; Silliman, Connecticut; Strong, Allen, Brackett, Massachusetts; Hiuidekoper, Pennsylvania; HIuseman, Missouri; a qualified commendation, Meehan, Deliot, in rich soils, Buchanan (10).

2. CONCORD - Silliman, Hluidekoper (thinks it vigorous, prolific, but crude), Hiuseman, Meehan, Deliot (in poor soil), Grider, Buchanan (7).

3. IONA - Grant, Silliman, Strong, Allen, Brackett, Deliot (all Eastern men), (6).

4. DIANA - Grant, Strong, Allen, HInidekoper, Meehan (5).

5. ALLEN'S HYBRID - Sil]imanr, Strong, Allen (Eastern) (3). 6. CREVELLING - Strong, Brackett, Meehan (3). CLINTON - Meehan, Deliot (poor soil), Grider (Middle States). HARTFORD PROLIFIC - Silliman, Huseman, Grider. This tabular view shows us that the Delaware is a favorite in all parts of the country, to which may be added the opinion of Mr. Fuller, who in his "Treatise on the Grape" says, "It (the Delaware) is a purely native variety, and probably a seedling of the Catawba, or one of that group."

The Delaware Grape

"If I could have but one variety for my own use it certainly would be the Delaware, as it is the highest flavored native grape known." "All that it requires is a good rich soil, with fair culture, to produce the best results."

"Bunch and berries of a medium size, skin thin of a beautiful dark red color when ripe, flesh tender and juicy and scarcely any pulp, exceedingly sweet, but still brisk and vinous, never cloying to the taste, vine very hardy, moderately vigorous and productive, ripens the first of September." Mr. Hiuseman of Missouri, whose first favorite is the Concord, says, " The first season the Delaware attracted great attention by its fruitfulness, seemingly healthy habit, and excellent quality of its fruit; but the two following seasons it has been badly affected by leaf blight, and seems too feeble and delicate in its habit to become a paying fruit here compared with others."

The Concord Grape

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The Concord, which is second in number of advocates, is a hardy, vigorous, and productive grape, though found to be more liable to rot and mildew than some of the other grapes. Its fine color, a rich deep purple, and largish berries make it a very attractive market fruit, for which it will be a favorite until purchasers shall learn to discriminate in buying between looks and flavor, as its juicy, pulpy, sometimes acid and foxy, though thin-skinned berry is decidedly inferior in table qualities to several other varieties; it ripens from 10th to 20th September. Mr. Huseman finds it the best grape in Missouri for table and market, and third for wine purposes.

The Iona Grape

Third, the Iona, which is also a seedling of the Catawba, which Mr. Fuller " considers the most promising of all the new varieties; the vine is strong, vigorous, short-jointed, and hardy; berries large, round, semi-transparent when they begin to ripen, growing opaque as the color deepens; skin thin, pale red, with deep small red veins at first, changing to dark red when fully ripe; flesh tender with very little pulp; sweet brisk flavor; ripens 10th to 20th September.

Diana Grapes

Fourth, Diana. This grape has been twenty-six years before the public, and has been always praised; but owing to its being more tender than some varieties, and more liable to rot and mildew, it does not rank as high as formerly; medium-sized branches; me dium-sized, though often uneven berry, pale red with thick skin; flesh tender though more pulpy than the two former; keeps well after being gathered; ripens from 15th to 30th September.

Allen's Hybrid Grapes

Fifth, Allen's Hybrid is considered to be a cross between our native and the foreign grape. Bunches medium to large; berries round, good sized; skin thin, amber-colored; flesh tender, pulpless; very fine vinous flavor; ripens 1st of September; rather tender, needing some covering to thrive in the Northern half of the Northern States, therefore not so good for the vineyard unless in well-protected situations.

Crevelling Grapes

Sixth, Crevelling. This is a Pennsylvania variety of grape which is very highly praised by those who have cultivated it, but has not been generally cultivated. Berries round, black, rather large; flesh juicy, sweet, and rich flavored; good bearer, vine hardy and vigorous; ripens from 5th to 20th September.

For the eastern half of the Northern States this list is undoubtedly all that one can wish who only proposes to plant half a dozen varieties; there are many others very popular and doubtless very valuable.

Adirondac Grapes

First, the Adirondac, a seedling of the Isabella, which Mr. Brackett of Winchester, Mass., places second in his list of grapes. Bunches large; berries large; skin thin, nearly black, with a delicate bloom; flesh tender, little pulp, sweet flavored; ripens 1st to 20th September. Strong and vigorous grower. Second, Israella, seedling of Isabella, much like the Adirondac, ripens 1st to 10th September. Third, Rogers No. 15, which some cultivators think the best of the new seedlings; bunch rather large; berries loose, large, round, amber-colored, tender, juicy, pulpless, rich flavor, earlier than the Concord; vine vigorous and but little affected by mildew. This grape is constantly increasing in favor; but the great number, more than forty seedlings, grown by Rogers tends to create confusion, and some of the inferior varieties have been taken for No. 15, which has injured its reputation.

As we get farther West there is less unanimity of sentiment as to the six best grapes, because of the greater number of varieties which thrive in the different localities, and the smaller interest felt by cultivators in comparing and testing their individual experiences.

Mr. iHuseman, of Missouri, recommended in an essay published by him in 1863, for wine, Norton's Virginia, Herbement, Concord; for table and market, Concord, Herbement, Hartford Prolific, Blood's Black, Union Village, North-Carolina seedling, or Mary Ann. I should consider any cultivator unwise who should stock a vineyard of whatever size with one or two varieties: he should have at least half a dozen, in order to take advantage of all circumstances; but where one can grow only a single vine on some fence, house-wall, or post, then let him select of the foregoing six varieties the one he prefers, sure that it will be as good as any grape yet discovered.

Cultivating Grapes

Leaving the varieties, we will now come to methods of cultivation.

The first condition of success is thorough drainage; and whether the vine is to be in a city area or a country vineyard, no one can have reasonable hope of success who does not thoroughly secure good drainage. Where otherwise there is no appearance of surplus moisture, a close, clayey subsoil almost prohibits success, as it is, like the copper bottom of a basin, almost impervious to moisture; and a sudden summer rain which does not appear on the surface may be collected in the subsoil like a pond, and give the vine, by its cold evapo- rations, a sudden check and mildew.

Second, Soil. Many specific soils have been recommended for grapes; in the grapery under glass, whether the border be with'in the house or outside, the soil and border must be rich, as the roots are compelled to draw their support from a limited surface. In garden or field culture, the best soil is a light rich loam, which must be thoroughly worked by trenching or subsoiling. If it is rich, it is an advantage to have a tendency to sand, and that a rich soil is rather stony is in its favor. If the soil is poor, it must be enriched by well-rotted barnyard manure or special manures, of which the two best are ground bone, ashes and gypsum.

Third, Situation. First let it be sheltered, to reduce as far as may be the injurious sweep of cold winds.

The garden or the vineyard, protected on the north, west, and east by high evergreen woods and hedges, is most likely to be healthy. When a side-hill well sheltered, and with the other conditions secured, can be obtained, it is the best, as the atmospheric conditions are more uniform, there is less tendency to stagnation of air, cold currents, and low temperature than on level land. When a vineyard is to be made on a side-hill, select the side facing east or south if possible, the west last, and north not at all, as it does not receive sufficient sun early and late in the day or in the year to give the vine its necessary stimulus. If vines are to be grown in city areas, where the soil is on the shady side of the yard, procure a vine with a long cane, plant on the shady side, and lay the cane down under the bricks or flags of the yard, and bring it up on the sunny side; or plant your vine, and let grow the first season as long a cane as will ripen its wood; then stop it, and lay it down as before.

You will also gain in this way more active root-surface, as the vine under the bricks or walk will root freely, and will obtain a much larger feeding ground: if the soil is rich and well drained, the roots will thrive under the pavement about as well as in the open ground; they will be protected from the direct evaporation, and, if they get less direct rain, will lose less by evaporation.

Planting Grapes

Fourth, How to plant. Prepare the ground thoroughly, not merely where you are to set the vine, but the entire surface to be used for the culture; by deep spading or trenching, adding at that time such manure as you desire, carefully incorporating it with the soil. The soil ready, dig your holes eight feet apart, three feet in diameter, in rows six feet apart, deepest on the edges, say one foot on the circuniference, shoaling to six inches in the centre, which enables one to spread the roots evenly, and give their ends a suitable downward tendency. When you plant in the open ground, set the stake in the centre of the hole first, lest it should injure the roots by being thrust in afterwards.

Select good red cedar, locust, chestnut stakes, about three inches square or diameter; char the lower three and one-half feet; then drive them in three feet deep, leaving seven feet projecting above the surface; then set the vine, first softening the surface around the stake on the surface of the hole with a hand fork. Select in preference two or three year old plants, and, before setting them, prune their roots carefully, and cut the cane back to four or six buds; after planting, leave the surface of the ground fine and smooth; if you plant in the fall, cover the ground with well-rotted top-dressing of manure, drawing the mulch or some earth about the stem to protect buds; during the first season, the vines which grow feebly should be stimulated with liquid manure or guano, in order that all may be equally ready for pruning and training the second year.

If the vines are to be grown on espaliers, you may make the whole espalier when you set the vines, or only set the posts, leaving the completion of the espalier for the time when it is needed. Where the vines are to be trained on walls or fences, there will be no need of any long stakes.

Light stakes one inch square may be set as a support for the vine for the first year or two. When the buds break after planting, select the strongest, and rub off the other buds that all the strength may go into it, and, when it has made a few inches' growth, cut off the naked stem of the remaining old cane an inch or two above the new shoot: this shoot may be left to trail over the ground, or be tied up to the stake. About the first of August, pinch off the end of the cane to check its growth and ripen the wood. One or two new eyes may break below; if so, when they have grown a few joints, pinch them; the vine may now be left until time for pruning. The best season for pruning is from the fall of the leaf to the middle of winter.

It is best for all young vines to be lightly covered with some kind of litter during the first winter; and therefore convenience will induce one to prune before the cold sets in. Cut away the long cane, leaving two buds at any rate, and, to avoid accidents, it will be well to leave three or four. In the spring, before the vines have started, you can rub off the weaker buds. Save the canes you cut off to propagate new vines.

If your ground is not rich enough to maintain a permanent vineyard, top-dressing of manure may be dug in between the rows; best do this in the fall, and use well-rotted manure, as green manure, or too much of it, is likely to over-stimulate the growth when applied in the spring, driving the vine too much to wood, producing larger but not so well-flavored fruit. We are now ready to start on the second year of the vine, and must commence by deciding in what way our vine is to be pruned. Experience has shown that vines left to themselves will grow every year longer, and farther from the ground, with a long interval of naked stem of no possible good, at the top of which is the new growth and the fruit; and where the vine is left to run urnpruned, the fruit will be large and fine at the top of the vine, and nearly worthless below.

Pruning Grapes

Pruning, therefore, is simnply a process by which man brings the fruit-bearing portion near the ground, saving labor, and, as it proves, increasing the crop, by compelling the sap to feed all the fruit-bearing buds alike, producing fruit equally good in all portions of the vine. This is the principle; the application has varied with different cultivators, but the variations are easily reducible to two: the long-cane system, in which the vine throws up a cane this year which bears fruit next, and at the same time produces a second cane; next year the fruitbearing cane of this year is cut out, and the succeeding or third year the cane of the second year bears fruit, and makes a new cane to replace the fruit-bearing cane of the same year.

I will dispose of this method at once, by saying that although it has some advantages it is wasteful, more troublesome and inferior to the second system or spur-pruning. You have the cuts of the method of spur-pruning applied to the grapevine as it is carried along the rafters of the grapery: the principle is the same when enforced out-of-doors, though the management is different; but even though I may repeat myself I shall go through the treatment of the vine for the first four years.

Having decided upon spur-pruning, we must next decide whether the vines are to be grown on posts or espaliers, and we should remember that the wall of a house or a fence are the same as espaliers. It has been found best, in order to secure the greatest amount of fruit with the least expenditure of vital force, and to insure the even breaking of all the buds and a uniform supply of fruit, to bend the vine considerably out of the perpendicular, as thereby we retard the sap, and are enabled to produce uniformity in the length of the new wood, which insures an equal distribution of sap to all parts of the vine, and therefore a uniform development and quality of fruit. When vines are to be grown upon espaliers, the first step is to produce for the second year canes which can be bent at a consid erable angle, if not a right angle, and carried along the espalier; the posts of the espalier being set eight feet apart, the vines may be set opposite them or half way between: in either case it will have eight feet in length by one-half the height to cover with fruit-bearing wood, and the simple problem is how this may be most perfectly done.

By referring to the plan annexed, you will see the method of pruning and training for several years; after the fourth year the method of pruning is the same, unless spurs become too old or chance to lose their buds, in which case they must be cut back to the arm. In time the arms themselves get too old to produce as vigorous fruit as when younger; in that event cut one out at the fork, when a new one can be developed from many latent or concealed buds which are always present at the base of buds formerly developed and removed, and which will grow whenever there is a chance; after one arm is renewed treat the other in the same manner.

To return to our vine with four buds left at the comnmencement of the second year, let the two most vigorous buds grow, and rub off the others; as they grow, bend them down to the ground, or tie them to stakes, keeping them always very carefully bent.

Pinch the vines when they have made five feet growth; prune them back to four feet in the autumn, and lay them down and cover them up as the first year. At the commencement of the third year tie them to the espaliers at A and C; the buds will break at each eye; rub Off all but those you wish to preserve, and tie them up to the espalier as they grow; when they have made three to four feet growth pinch them; they will then be in the condition shown by the left side of C.

Prune them to two buds; besides these two buds, there will be several base buds, leave them all until spring.

In pruning the vine this and succeeding years be careful to cut the right hand-spurs so that they will incline to grow to the left, and the left vice versa, to ensure the espaliers shall be covered evenly, - this is best effected by leaving that bud as terminal for growth which has the right inclination.

Remember that the object of this method is to keep the spurs short as possible, by constantly bringing up the new canes from as near the arm as the buds will permit. When the vine is pruned in the autumn, it is safe to leave one more bud than we mean to retain to enable us to cut it off later in the year, when the frost of winter may have chilled the upper bud; as I have said in another part of this book, the pruning should always be made midway of an internode to leave a bit of cane above the bud as its protector.

This method enables one to carry a vine on the side of a house or as high as he desires, and spread it where he wants it, either to get it into the sun or out of the way of thieves: this method of pruning once fairly understood, the cultivator can do what he pleases, carry his vine where he pleases; if he wants to lay a tender vine down and cover it each year, he can carry one cane the second year diagonal to the espalier, and the third year carry out his spur from one arm instead of two; then, when the fall comes, he can untie the vine and cover it as he thinks best. When vines are grown on walls or houses singly, they may be allowed to make longer arms and spurs than when in vineyards, as the vine has more room for its roots to feed.

A spur which has grown too old and clumsy to give vigorous canes and the best of fruit: can be removed, but not smooth with the wood, as the latent buds are more readily developed from the base of the spur, a little above the arm, than from the surface of the arm itself.

Epaliers for the support of the vine are but rarely used in the vineyard, where it is usual to tie the vines to stakes. The vines are allowed to grow about six feet high, and are then stopped, and pruned according to the shortspur system. This is cheaper, and very often a more convenient method; but, unless the vine is twisted, in order to retard the flow of sap, the upper buds will be over stimulated, and produce the best fruit. There are many ways for doing this, but by far the best is that practised by Mr. E. A. Braekett, of Winchester, who, taking the two eyes and canes of the second year, winds them in opposite directions in a spiral around his stake, keeping the two canes about four inches apart, and stops the growth by pinching when the vine has reached the top of the stake. The spiral vine is in much the same condition as the horizontal, and is pruned by the short spur method. A secondary advantage of this method is, that as the vines acquire age, they become rigid, and ultimately can dispense with a stake.

How long vines can continue to be pruned in this manner and yield profitable crops has never been ascertained. But there are some in Europe more than one hundred years old, still bearing vigorously every year. As vines acquire age and stretch their roots indefinitely, they could be allowed to carry out their arms much farther, and in such cases the alternate vines should be removed to give room on the espaliers to the remainder. As the cost of vines in the new vineyard is large, the proprietor should, as far as possible, propagate his own vines; and I should not do jus tice to this subject, were I to leave it without briefly setting before the reader the best methods for their propagation.

If our object is to get new varieties, plant the seed selected from well-grown and perfectly ripe grapes of the variety to be cul tivated. The seed must be kept from drying, or their vitality will be injured, which may be prevented by drying the grape into a raisin, which will keep the seeds moist until spring, or by planting them in the fall, in open seed-beds, or boxes of loam, or sand, which are to remain under cover: as grape seeds very often do not germinate until they have been in the ground two years, the cultivator must leave the bed in which he plants them undisturbed for two years, unless as many vines come up the first year as he wishes. The seed should be sowed in drills one foot apart, seed three inches apart, and half an inch deep: plant in a light, rich, loamy soil; when the seedlings come up, shade the young foliage in its infancy from the scorching rays of the sun; the plants will soon grow strong enough to need no protection; they may be allowed to grow together in a mass until fall. When they have made a few leaves, tie the little plants up to small sticks, and pinch them after they have made six or eight good buds; in the fall take them up, cut back the wood to four eyes, leave the tap-root of a moderate length, and either plant them at once in rows four feet apart, plants four feet apart in the row, or cover them up, tops and all, in a trench until spring; if they are planted out, they should be covered with a protection of light litter until spring. In the spring tie them up, and let them run from four to six feet, then stop them, and cut them back in the autumn to four eyes, when they will be ready to be set out in a permanent position.

The fruit continues to improve for several years, so that it is not possible, until the vine is mature, to decide upon the success of the experiment. But if you want to increase the number of plants of the kinds you now have, it must be done by cuttings, either of a single eye or of several eyes, or by layers. In layering the vine, you do not need to tongue. When it is laid down under the soil, it will root at every bud, and if the buds are near the surface, each eye will break and throw up a cane; when well rooted, cut the layer off the main stem, and treat like a new vine.

Single eyes will give the greatest number of plants in the shortest time. Cut buds off with a piece of the internode on each side, taking them from wood of the last year's growth: you may set the bud in that condition in the soil, covering the bud about a quarter of an inch; or you may slice off the lower part of the wood under the eye, nearly or quite to the pith; or you may cut the bud away from the internode at the upper end, and taper the lower end, leaving it an inch or two long. In the first two cases the bud is laid horizontally on the earth, in the top of the pot, and then covered over; in the other the pointed end is pressed down into the earth in an oblique direction, until the bud is covered as deeply as before. It is quite necessary in order to succeed with single eye cuttings to have bottom heat until the plants have got well established, when they may be potted off into small pots, or be at once set in an open frame or bed in the ground, to be treated like seedlings. You can get bottom heat by the hotbed where there is no greenhouse.

Cuttings of two or more eyes may be set at first in the open ground: when the vines are pruned in the fall, cut the prunings into two, four, or six buds, according to the number of plants you need; two will answer. Pack them in sand or loam, and keep them during the winter where they will be moist, or bury them in the garden; prepare the cuttings by removing the wood smoothly at the base of the lower bud, and two inches above the top of the upper bud. In the spring make a trench of good soil, with a sloping side deep enough to take the cuttings; set them in four to six inches apart, and cover all but the top eye with soil; return all the earth back, and press it compactly about the cuttings.

If the weather should be very dry, occasionally watering to keep the ground moist might be necessary; they will very soon commence growing, and frequently make three to six feet the first year.

Tie them to stakes as they grow, and pinch the ends of the vine as in other cases; in the autumn take them up, prune back to four buds; you will find roots have started out from each bud which was below the ground; cut off the root-stem below the strongest roots, and then cover the vines till spring, or set them in their proper places. Another method of increasing vines is to graft old or worthless stocks with new varieties, is not the best; it has been proved that grafting the root or lower part of the stem by the cleft method is more successful, cutting the vine off just below the surface of the ground, or as near it as is convenient, using but one scion of one year's wood, shaping it as you would an apple-scion: insert it so as to bring the edge of the inner back of the scion and root together; cover the head with grafting clay, or merely return the earth close about it. Mr. Fuller recommends, when this is done in the autumn, settingan inverted pot over the top of the scion to protect it when we remove the covering in the spring, and then to cover the whole with earth and litter.

Cuttings may be made of the immature wood, but thley are more troublesome, and some think can never make healthy vines, though there is no reason why they should not, after they once become established; the cutting is made and treated. Cut a piece of the vine with two eyes upon it; cut away the cane smoothly below the lower eye, and a short distance above the upper, leaving the leaf that is opposite the upper eye; the cane should be taken off smoothly below in order to offer as large and smooth a surface of the cambium layer as possible, out of which the new roots will be emitted; set these cuttings in pots, and treat as is there described; when they are well rooted, transplant to open beds, frame, or small pots, and treat them as heretofore described. With these directions I must leave the subject, believing that have simply and succinctly stated the leading facts, and given the important directions about the vine which will enable any earnest person to cultivate grapes successfully.

There will be, of course, many questionings occurring to every one which I have not answered; many cases to which my directions do not seem to apply; but I have given the principles, which, like the foot rule, may be applied by intelligence to all cases. Different localities will require different treatments, and will be exposed to very dissimilar obstacles; men who live near great sheets of water, as on the islands in Lake Erie, will be able to grow grapes with a perfection unknown to the main land, the great body of water producing a more equable condition of atmosphere. The vineyard on a' side-hill or upland will escape some of the trials which annoy those in valleys; but each grape-grower will learn how best to contend with his own enemies, and at length sufficient knowledge will be gained to enable us to overcome the principal obstacles to grape-culture. Before many years, we may reasonably hope to see grapes adapted to every locality, which will funish an abundance of fruit and wine.