Our Native Grape. Grapes and Their Culture. Also Descriptive List of Old
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GREEN MOUNTAIN, Our Native Grape. Grapes and Their Culture ALSO DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF OLD AND NEW VARIETIES, PUBLISHED BY C MITZKY & CO. 1893- / W. W. MORRISON, PRINTER, 95-99 EAST MAIN STREET ROCHESTER, N. Y. \ ./v/^f Entered according to Act ot Congress, in the year 1893, by C. MITZKY & CO., Rochester, N. Y., in the office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington, 1). C. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. :.^ ^ 5 •o •A ' * Introduction. RAPE GROWING is fast becoming a great industry. Its importance is almost incalculable, and it should re- ceive every reasonable encouragement. It is not our intention in this manual, ' OUR NATIVE GRAPE," to make known new theories, but to improve on those already in practice. Since the publication ot former works on this subject a great many changes have taken place ; new destructive diseases have ap- peared, insects, so detrimental to Grapevines, have increased, making greater vigilance and study neces- sary. / New varieties of Grapes have sprung up with great rapidity Many labor-saving tools have been introduced, in fact. Grape culture of the present time is a vast improvement on the Grape culture of years ago. The material herein contained has been gathered by the assistance of friends all over the country in all parts of the United States, and compiled and arranged that not alone our own ex- perience, but that of the best experts in the country, may serve as a guide to the advancement of Grape culture. We have spared neither time or expense to make this work as complete as possible. With all our efforts, however, we feel compelled to ask forbearance for our shortcom- ings and mild judgment for our imperfections. We beg to acknowledge our obligations to our numerous friends who came forward with such a willingness to assist, that with pleasure we pushed the task we had undertaken, being confident of its success. We are under great obligations to the Agricultural Department at Washington, and to many of the Directors of our Experimental Stations who have aided us with valu- able articles and engravings, —Prof. T. V. Munson, D. S. Marvin, Dr. Stayman, Luther Tucker of " The Cultivator and Country Gentleman :" To these and many others who have kindly furnished us information necessary for the completion of our work, we feel grateful and hope that many readers who have had more or less bitter disappointments in the cultivation of the most delicious of all our fruits, may profit from this work. C. MITZKY & CO. History of the Grkpe. .^i RAPE CULTURE is a matter of increasing interest. If we look back through lll^r' the pages of history into the dark ages of the past we find that God in the very beginning gave us, in the garden of Eden this most delicious of all the choice fruits, and that in Noah's vineyard there were Grapes sweet and tempting. History tells us that as early as the year 1630 there was in Palestine, Grapevines, the stems of which were nearly a foot and a half in diameter, thirty feet high with branches covering a space over fifty feet square, producing clusters of Grapes weigh- ing from ten to twelve pounds, with berries, which might be compared to our plums of the present time. At Hebron Grapes grew so large that a single bunch was as much as two men could conveniently carrj% and on the Jewish mountains the bunches of Grapes which grew wild, were each half an ell (27 inches) long and the berries two joints of a finger in length. These historical statements are worthy of credence. GRAPEVINE AT HAMPTON COURT, ENGLAND. but are, indeed, surpassed by the Grapes of Damascus, at the present day, which are often found to weigh twenty-five pounds to the single bunch. Vines in Crete and Chois produced clusters from ten to forty pounds each. A bunch of Syrian Grapes grown in a vineyard at Wetbeck, England, weighed nineteen pounds. It was known to the Egyptians ; representations of the culture of the vine, of the treading outof the juice and of the storing of the wine in jars, being all discovered in paintings within the tombs. Columns in Juno's Temple at Metapont, and a statue of Jupiter in the city of Apollonium were made from the wood of the vine. The OUR NATIVE GRAPE. great doors of the Cathedral of Ravenna are made of vine planks, some of which are twelve feet long and fifteen inches broad. The Hampton Court vine is the most famous in England. It was planted in 1769 in a glass house seventy-two feet long and about thirty feet wide which is completely filled by this one vine. The trunk is nearly three feet in circumference at about three feet from the ground, or about as large as the trunk of a full-sized apple tree. It bears an annual crop of about a ton of Black Hamburg Grapes, and has produced 2,500 large bunches in a single season. As this vine was planted not many hundred feet from the Thames, it is thought that the roots extend to the river and thus have obtained nourishment for so many years. At Montecito, Cal. , four miles from Santa Barbara, there is a Grapevine, probably the largest in the world. Its diameter and yield would be incredible, were it not that they were vouched for by men of veracity, speaking from personal observation. It is a single vine, planted by a Mexican woman about sixty years ago, and has a diameter of twelve inches, one foot from the ground. Its branches cover an area of 12,000 feet and produce annually from 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of Grapes of the Mission variety (many bunches weighing six and seven pounds), the crop being generally made into wine. The old lady who planted this one-vine vineyard died in 1S65, at the age of 107. California also has the largest vineyard in the world. It is in Tehama county, consisting of 3,825 acres, to which a considerable number of acres are added every year. Up to 1840, the only Grapes grown in this country in open air were the Catawba and Isabella, and these were confined almost wholly to the cliffs about Cincinnati. The Ives and lona came later, and when Mr. Rogers commenced his work of crossing the foreign Grapes with the wild Fox Grape of Massachusetts, the result was the production of over forty varieties, some of which are still esteemed very highl}\ Soon after this, Mr. Rickett began his experiments of hybridizing or crossing, in A'hich he was successful, producing many valuable varieties. From about this time on, the interest in such work began to develop and scores of experimenters have been busy multiplying varieties until we now have a long list of valuable sorts of this excellent fruit. Grape culture in the old world has always been considered one of the most important branches of industry and in our own favored land, especially in some sec- tions, it is fast gaining importance. The acreage is constantly increasing, but not as rapidly as the consumption. A larger and larger amount of this delicious fruit is being consumed by all classes of people. It has been but a few years since our native Grapes have become an article of commerce in our large cities, yet the trade is enor- in season, and in our mous ; single persons selling as many as a thousand tons one countn,' villages, where a short time ago a few baskets would supply the demand, tons are now used. As compared with France and many parts of the old world the vineyard business in this country is only in its infancy. In New York State, in what is known as the Lake Keuka district, a grower of Grapes shipped his first crop, amounting to fifty pounds, to the New York market, about I845, by way of the New York and Erie canal. The Grapes were delivered in good condition and the commission houses handling them wrote encouragingly to the shipper, advising further shipments. The next year the grower was able to ship some two or three hundred pounds. He overdid the matter, however, and the New York market on Grapes broke under the pressure. It is estimated, that during the season of 1890, there have been shipped from the same district and carried b}^ the different railroads and express companies to New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other mar- kets about 20,000 tons or 40,000,000 pounds of Grapes, and probably one-quarter of this amount was, in addition, sold to wine manufacturers. The Hudson River dis. OUR NATIVE GRAPE. trict is estimated to have shipped to New York and other markets, between 13,000 and 15,000 tons of Grapes, while the Chautauqua district of New York furnished about 15,000 tons of Grapes for the different markets of the country, making a grand total of nearly 50,000 tons as the product of what is known as the New York district. This does not include over 15,000 tons of Grapes used in the districts for wine. According to a bulletin sent out by the Census bureau at Washington, there are, to-day, over 300,000 acres planted to vines that are bearing Grapes, and nearly 100,000 to vines not yet arrived at that remunerative stage. The average yield of Grapes per acre is something over two tons, the commercial value of which is set down at fifty- seven dollars a ton ; the total product is put at over 600,000 tons, of which over 267,000 tons are sold for table use, including what are eaten ripe from the vines and what are dried and disposed of as raisins.