Some Uses of the Geapevine An» Its Fruit

SOME USES OF THE GEAPEVINE AN» ITS FRUIT. By GEORGE C. HUSMANN, Viticulturistj in Charge of VUicultural Investigationsj Bureau of Plant Industry. INTRODUCTION. Perhaps no plant and its products are used in so many ways and for so many purposes as the grapevine and its fruit. Many of these uses are of ancient origin, owing no doubt to the fact that fewplants grow and thrive under climatic and soil conditions so varied or respond to care and attention more generously than does the grapevine. Thus, we find certain forms of it in the natural state aspiring to overtop the mightiest monarchs of the forest and single plants overspreading areas hundreds of feet in circumference, while other forms are grown under cultivation as mere bushes, 2 or 3 feet in height, yet yielding crops ranging from 1^ tons to as much as 22 tons of the finest fruit to the acre. By nature the "vine" is evidently a great rambler. Pliny states that because the vines in Italy climbed to the tops of the highest pop- lars the grape gatherers in vintage time stipulated with the master that in case their feet should slip and their necks be broken he was to order and pay for the funeral pyre and tomb. The cultivation of the vine was the highest achievement of ancient husbandry, the vine and olive being, in antiquity, the marks, and almost the symbols, of settled and cultured life. Profane history does not reach back to the first plantings or the first wine made from the grape. It is interesting to note that grape seeds have been found with the remains of Swiss and Italian lake dwellers, in European graves of the Bronze Age, and in the tombs of the Egyptian mummies. The vine is frequently the subject of metaphor in the Scriptures—^to dwell under the vine and fig tree is emblematic of happiness and peace. We enjoy the grape in the fresh state, or, when dried, in the form of rai- sins or "currants;" the unfermented juice and wine are important items in household economy and medicine, while from the grape many other products and by-products are made. The vine itself gives pleasure to the senses by its fragrant blossom, beautiful foliage, and luscious fruit; it affords shade and shelter; various parts of it are employed for divers medicinal purposes; and the wood is used for fuel and in the manufacture of furniture and other useful articles. In fact, there is no part of the vine or its fruit that has not proven of value for one or more purposes. 363 364 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. In Switzerland the leaves are applied to medicinal or surgical uses. For cuts and fresh wounds the}^ are esteemed a sovereign remedy. Decoctions of the juice of the leaves are used in poultices. An agreea- ble tea is also made from the leaves which is said to greatly strengthen the nerves. In its use more sugar is necessary than for tea from the tea plant. The leaves are also excellent food for cows, sheep, and hogs. The ''tears" of the vine, used medicinally, are a limpid exuda- tion of the sap at the time the plant begins budding, and are found on FIG. 88.-^<Jrape arbor, Fresno, Gal. the vine where the slightest wound occurs to the plant. The liquid is collected by cutting off the,ends of the canes, bending them down and sticking the ends into the neck of a bottle, which will be filled in a few days. The wood and branches are used in the manufacture of baskets, furniture, rustic work, bark for tying material, etc., and when burned furnish potash and salts. The wood of the grape is said to be of the most lasting nature, very beautiful in its texture. The columns of Juno's temple at Metapont and also the statue of Jupiter at the city of Appolonium were made SOME USES OF THE GRAPEVINE AND ITS FßUIT* 365 from the wood of the vine. The great doors of the cathedral at Ravenna are made of vine planks, some of which are 12 feet long and 15 inches broad. Aside from their economic value, vines are often cultivated for purely ornamental purposes, owing to their beautiful foliage and the rich coloration they assume, the shade they afford, and their hardihood and longevity. The vine is one of the few plants that can be conven- iently grown in cities or towns either as bushes or for making delight- ful arbors (fig. 38) that not only beautify the home, but furnish cooling shade and luscious fruit. The more tender sorts can be grown in graperies (PL XLIV, fig. 1) in many regipns with good profit, and when grown in pots not only serve as handsome decorations in the dwelling and on the table, but add one of the choicest of morsels to the menu as well. To quote the language of an enthusiast: The grape is the poor man's fruit, especially one who has only a house lot of the emallest possible dimensions. He can plant vines beside his cottage and their roots will extend and profitably occupy every inch of ground underneath it, and from that small space produce all the fruit his family can consume, while the vines afford shade and protection and add beauty to his little home, occupying no space, either above or below the ground, to interfere with other interests, and producing more fruit in less time and with less labor and attention than anything that was ever planted. AGE OF GRAPEVINES. It is diflBicult to accurately estimate the age of vines by the usual method of counting the rings, because the yearly growth is not dis- tinctly marked. Some authors state that the vine equals, and even surpasses, the oak in point of age. In America we have been unable to ascertain the age that planted vines wiir attain, and the time that has elapsed since its discovery would not be sufficient had the experi- ment been begun when Columbus landed in 1492. Pliny mentions a vine 600 years old. Miller tells us some of the vineyards of Italy held good 300 years and that vines 100 years old were accounted as young. Professor Bosc states that some of the vines of Burgundy were 400 years old and more. It is more than likely that the advent of the phylloxera will have a tendency to shorten these age records in the case of the European and other non- resistant species. Doubtless there are native vines of much greater age. The writer has never seen a vine among the endless number of natives that abound in our forests that died from the effects of age. SOME LAKGB VINES. Stephen Schultz says: At Beitdjin, a village near Ptolemais, we took our supper under a vine, the stem of which was nearly a foot and a half in diameter, the height about 30 feet, and it covered with its branches a hut more than 50 feet long and broad. 366 YEARBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT. OF AGRICULTURE. The celebrated vine in the conservatory at Hampton Court, England, planted in 1769, had in 1830 a stem 13 inches in girth and a principal branch 114 feet in length, the whole vina occupying more than 160 square yards; and in one year it produced 2,200 bunches of fruit weighing on an average a pound—in all, about a ton of fruit. A wild grapevine upon the shores of Mobile Bay about 1 mile north of Daphne, Ala., is commonly known as the ''General Jackson vine," from the fact that Gen. Andrew Jackson twice pitched his tent under it during his campaigns against the Seminóle Indians. This vine in June, 1897,^ was reported to have a circumference of 6 feet 1 inch at its base. Its age was estimated at that time to exceed 100 years. A vine now standing in Calif ornia, which is considered the largest in the world (PI. XLIV, fig. 2), was plfinted in 1842 by a Spanish woman. Beneath its spreading branches, which cover nearly half an acre, 800 persons could find protection from the sun's heat. The first election in Santa Barbara County under American rule was held beneath its ripening fruit. The vine is of the Mission variety. In 1893 it bore 8 tons of grapes, and in 1895 Qver 10 tons. The trunk of the vine is 7 féet 8 inches in circumference. It is now owned by Jacob Wilson, of Carpintería, Cal. GRAPE GROWING IN ITS INFANCY. The early attempts at grape growing on the Atlantic coast were generally unsuccessful, having been confined almost exclusively to the introduction and growing of European varieties. It has only been since attention has been given to improving and cultivating our native grapes and to counteracting the injury of insects and vine diseases that grape culture in that region has gradually developed into an important industry. / It will be of interest here to note that not only has America, in improving and cultivating her native grapes, given to the world a new fruit, but it has been the direct means of reestaMishing the European vineyards upon stocks resistant to the attacks of the phylloxera or root-louse, which has already destroyed a large portion of th« vineyards of the Old World. All the successfully reestablished vineyards are either American varieties or those of American parentage, or hybrids of these and Viniferas, or Vinifera varieties grafted on such sorts. In California, where the Viniferas have found a congenial home, and which bids fair to surpass any like area of the world in grape production (for, while in Europe they produce 150 to 400 gal- lons of wine to the acre, in California it is quite common for the production to reach five times that amount and even more), there has been a similar experience.

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