Part 8 (1/2)

KINGSESSING.

Bunch long and loose, large, shouldered; berry medium, round, pale red, with fine lilac bloom; pulpy; of fair quality, but subject to leaf-blight, and mildew.

ROGERS' HYBRID, NO. 15.

Bunch large, loose, shouldered; berry above medium, red with blue bloom, roundish-oblong, pulpy, with peculiar flavor, sweet and juicy. A showy grape, but not very good in quality, and much subject to mildew and rot. Ripens at the same time with Catawba.

CLa.s.s 5.--_Varieties unworthy of cultivation._

OPORTO.

Of all the humbugs ever perpetrated upon the grape-growing public, this is one of the most glaring. The vine, although a rank and healthy grower, is unproductive; seldom setting more than half a dozen berries on a bunch, and these are so sour, have such a hard pulp, with such a decided frost-grape taste and flavor, and are so deficient in juice, that no sensible man should think of making them into wine, much less call it, as its disseminator did, ”the true port wine grape.”

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS WHITE.

This was sent me some eight years ago, by B. M. WATSON, as ”the best and hardiest white grape in cultivation,” and he charged me the moderate sum of $5 each, for small pot plants, with hardly two eyes of ripened wood. After careful nursing of three years, I had the pleasure of seeing my labors rewarded by a moderate crop of the vilest _red_ Fox Grapes it has ever been my ill luck to try.

The foregoing have all been tried by me, and have been characterized and cla.s.sified as I have found them _here_. The following are varieties I have not fruited yet, although I have them on trial.

Varieties highly recommended by good authorities: Telegraph, Black Hawk, Rogers' Hybrids, Nos. 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 19, 22, 33, Hettie, Lydia, Charlotte, Mottled, Pauline, Wilmington, Cotaction and Miles.

There are innumerable other varieties, for which their originators all claim peculiar merits, and some of whom may prove valuable. But all who bring new varieties before the public, should consider that we have already names enough, nay, more than are good for us, and that it is useless to swell the list still more, unless we can do so with a variety, superior in some respects to our best varieties. A new grape, to claim favor at the hands of the public, should be healthy, hardy, a good grower, and productive; and of superior quality, either for the table or for wine.

There are some varieties circulated throughout the country as natives, which are really nothing but foreign varieties, or, perhaps, raised from foreign seed. They will not succeed in open air, although now and then they will ripen a bunch. The Brinkle, Canadian Chief, Child's Superb, and El Paso belong to this cla.s.s.

A really good _table_ grape should have a large amount of sugar, but tempered and made more agreeable by a due proportion of acid, as, if the acid is wanting, it will taste insipid; a tender pulp, agreeable flavor, a large amount of juice, a good sized bunch, large berry, small seeds, thin skin, and hang well to the bunch.

A good _wine_ grape should have a large amount of sugar, with the acid in due proportion, a distinctive flavor or aroma; though not so strong as to become disagreeable, and for red wines a certain amount of astringency. It is an old vintner's rule, that the varieties with small berries will generally make the best wine, as they are generally richer in sugar, and have more character than varieties with larger berries.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 28.

CLARA.--_Berries 1/2 diameter._]

WINE-MAKING.

GATHERING THE GRAPES.

Although I have described the process already, I will here again reiterate that the grapes should be thoroughly _ripe_. This does not simply mean that they are well colored. The Concord generally begins to color here the 5th of August, and we could gather the majority of our grapes, of that variety, for market, by the 15th or 20th of that month; but for wine-making we allow them to hang until the 15th or 20th of September, and sometimes into October. Thus only do we get the full amount of sugar and delicacy of aroma which that grape is capable of developing, as the water evaporates, and the sugar remains; it also loses nearly all the acidity from its pulp; and the latter, which is so tough and hard immediately after coloring, nearly all dissolves and becomes tender. The best evidences of a grape being thoroughly ripe are: 1st. The stem turns brown, and begins to shrivel; 2nd, the berry begins to shrivel around the stem; 3d, thin and transparent skin; 4th, the juice becomes very sweet, and sticks to the finger like honey or mola.s.ses, after handling the grapes for some time.

It is often the case that some bunches ripen much later on the vines.

In such a case, the ripest should be gathered first, and those that are not fully ripe remain on the vines until mature. They will ripen much quicker if the ripest bunches have been removed first.

The first implements needed for the gathering are clean wooden and tin pails and sharp knives, or better still, the small shears spoken of in a former part of this work. Each gatherer is provided with a pail, or two may go together, having a pail each, so that one can empty and the other keep filling during the time. If there are a good many unripe berries on the bunches, they may be put into a separate pail, and all that are soft will give an inferior wine. The bunch is cut with as short a stem as possible, as the stem contains a great deal of acid and astringency; every unripe or decayed berry is picked out, so that nothing but perfectly sound, ripe berries remain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 29.]