The Rural Manuals Edited by L. H. BAILEY MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING BY U. P. HEDRICK HORTICULTURIST OF THE NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919 All rights reserved Copyright, 1919, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Setup and electrotyped. Published June, 1919. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Seventy-nine books on grapes enrich the pomology of North America, not counting numerous state and national publicatio

U. P. Hedrick. Geneva, N. Y. , Jan. 1, 1919....

THE DOMESTICATION OF THE GRAPE The domestication of an animal or a plant is a milestone in the advance of agriculture and so becomes of interest to every human being. But, more particularly, the materials, the events and the men who direct the work of domestication are of interest to those who breed and care for animals and plants; the grape-grower should find much profit in the story of the domestication of the grape. What was the raw material of a fruit known since the beginning of agriculture

GRAPE REGIONS AND THEIR DETERMINANTS Happily, the grape in its great diversity of forms accommodates itself to many conditions, so that some variety of the several cultivated species will produce fruit for home use, if not as a market commodity, in every part of America adapted to general agriculture. But commercial grape-growing on this continent is confined to a few regions, in each of which it is profitable only in ideal situations. In fact, few other agricultural industries are more definite

PROPAGATION The grape commends itself to commercial and amateur growers alike by its ease of propagation. The vines of all species may be propagated from seed, and all but one of the several cultivated species may be grown readily from cuttings or layers. All yield to grafting of one kind or another. Seeds are planted only to produce new varieties. At one time stocks were grown from seed, but this practice has fallen into disrepute because of the great variations in the seedlings. Varieties on t

STOCKS AND RESISTANT VINES Phylloxera, a tiny root-louse, made its appearance in France in 1861 and began multiplying with a fury unparalleled in the insect world. By 1874, the pest had become so widespread in Europe that it threatened the very existence of the great vineyard industry of that continent. All attempts to bring the pest under control failed, although the French government offered a reward of 300,000 francs for a satisfactory remedy. Numerous methods of treating the soil to check th

THE VINEYARD AND ITS MANAGEMENT A vineyard is more artificial than other plantations of fruits, since the vine requires greater discipline under cultivation than tree or bush. Yet greater art is required only when the attempt is made to grow the grape to perfection, for the vine bears fruit if left to indulge in riotous growth wheresoever it can strike root. Vineyard management, therefore, may represent the consummate art of three thousand or more years of cultural subserviency; or it may be so

FERTILIZERS FOR GRAPES As regards fertilizers, the grape-grower has much to learn and in learning he must approach the problem with humility of mind. For in his experimenting, which is the best way to learn, he will no sooner arrive at what seems to be a certain conclusion, than another season's results or the yields in an adjoining vineyard will upset the findings of past seasons and those obtained in other places. Unfortunately, there is little real knowledge to be obtained on the subject, for

PRUNING THE GRAPE IN EASTERN AMERICA The inexperienced look on pruning as a difficult operation in grape-growing. But once a few fundamentals are grasped, grape-pruning is not difficult. There is much less perplexity in pruning the grape than in pruning tree-fruits. Pruning follows accepted patterns in every grape region, and when the pattern is learned the difficulties are easily overcome. The inexperienced are confused by the array of "principles," "types," "methods," "systems" and the many te

METHODS OF TRAINING GRAPES IN EASTERN AMERICA The grape-grower takes great liberties with Nature in training his plants. No other fruit is so completely transformed by the grower's art from its natural habit of growth. Happily, the grape endures cutting well, and the pruner may rest assured that he may work his will in pruning his vines, following to his heart's desire a favorite method with little fear of seriously injuring his vines. Because of its accommodation to the desires of man in the di

GRAPE-PRUNING ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE The methods of pruning and training native grapes, discussed in the last two chapters, do not apply to the Vinifera grapes grown in the favored valleys of the Rocky Mountains and on the Pacific slope. As we have already seen, the Vinifera or Old World grape differs markedly in habits of growth from the American species so that it would not be expected that pruning which applies to the one would apply to the other types. The fundamentals, to be sure, are much th

EUROPEAN GRAPES IN EASTERN AMERICA As we have seen, there were many efforts to grow European grapes in America during the first two centuries in the settlement of the country. The various attempts, some involving individuals, others corporations and in early days even colonies, form about the most instructive and dramatic episodes in the history of American agriculture. All endeavors, it will be remembered, were failures, so dismally and pathetically complete that we are wont to think of the two

GRAPES UNDER GLASS Grape-growing under glass is on the decline in America. Forty or fifty years ago the industry was a considerable one, grapes being rather commonly grown near all large cities for the market, and nearly every large estate possessing a range of glass had a grapery. But grapes are better and more cheaply grown in Europe than in America, and the advent of quick transportation permits English, French and Belgian grape-growers to send their wares to American markets more cheaply tha

GRAPE PESTS AND THEIR CONTROL In common with other cultivated fruits, grapes are at the mercy of numerous insect and fungous pests unless man intervenes with remedial or preventive treatment. Happily for viticulture, knowledge of the pests of the vine has made such advancement in recent years that practically all are now controlled by remedial or preventive measures. Possibly no field of agriculture has had greater need, or received greater aid from science in the study and control of insects an

MARKETING THE CROPS AND VINEYARD RETURNS Viticulture, as all divisions of agriculture, is made up of two quite distinct phases of activity: growing the crop and marketing the crop. The subjects to be treated in this and the next chapter belong rather more to marketing than to cultural activities. Treated in detail, these operations constitute matter sufficient for a separate treatise, and only an outline of present practices is in place in a text such as this devoted to the culture of the fruit.

GRAPE PRODUCTS Over-production, with the attendant losses caused by glutted markets, is a factor which, like frosts and freezes, is ever in the mind of the grape-grower. No season passes but that some of the grape regions of the country suffer from over-production. Not uncommonly the grape industry in a region is better off in a season when the crop is small and prices high, than when the crop is large and prices low. In every part of the country where grapes are grown, over-production has been

GRAPE-BREEDING Chance, pure and simple, has been the greatest factor in the production of varieties of American grapes. From the millions of wild plants, an occasional grape of pre-eminent merit has caught the eye of the cultivator and has been brought into the vineyard to be the progenitor of a new variety. Or in the vineyards, more often in near-by waste lands, from the prodigious number of seedlings that spring up, pure or cross-bred, a plant of merit becomes the foundation of a new variety.

MISCELLANIES There yet remain several phases of grape-culture essential to success, none of which quite deserves a chapter and none of which properly falls into any of the foregoing chapters. The subjects are not closely related, are by no means of equal importance, yet all are too important to be relegated to the limbo of an appendix and are, therefore, thrown into a chapter of miscellanies. The blooming of the vine had little significance to the grape-grower, the blooming period being so late

GRAPE BOTANY The grape-grower must know the gross structure and the habits of growth of the plants properly to propagate, transplant, prune and otherwise care for the grape. Certainly he must have knowledge of the several species from which varieties come if he is to know the kinds of grapes, understand their adaptations to soils and climates, their relation to insects and fungi, and their value for table, wine, grape-juice and other purposes. Fortunately, the botany of the grape is comparativel

VARIETIES OF GRAPES Nature has expended her bounties in fullest measure for the vineyard. More than 2000 varieties of grapes are described in American viticultural literature, and twice as many more find mention in European treatises on the vine. Few other fruits offer the novelties given the grape in flavors, aromas, sizes, colors and uses. The vineyard, then, to fulfill commercial potentialities, should supply grapes throughout the whole season, and of the several colors and flavors and for al