# The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Grape Vine

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GRAPE.
Vitis, var.—Vigne, Fr.—Weintrauben, Ger.
The culture of the vine is spoken of in the remotest ages. The antediluvians were no doubt perfectly familiar with its growth and manufacture into an intoxicating drink. Providence, with a bountiful hand, distributes copiously over the earth those fruits which are for the comfort and luxury of man, who frequently converts these blessings into a curse, manufacturing with his own hands an engine for his destruction. The practice of not allowing vines to mature their fruit till the fourth year, was inculcated by Moses, who lectured on the subject to the Israelites. The Egyptians ascribed the manufacture of wine to Osiris, and the Grecians to Bacchus, whom, for the discovery, they elevated to the rank of a deity. Pliny describes many kinds of grapes, one shaped like a finger, which appears to be lost. They had a vine at that period, near Rome, ​that annually produced about three barrels of pure juice. In those days, young men under thirty, and women, all their lifetime, were forbidden to drink wine. How would these regulations suit the moderns? Plato loved wine: he says, “Nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by God to man.” Ignatius Marennius killed his wife with a billet of wood, having caught her drinking wine. He was tried, and was acquitted of murder; but history does not say whether it was by his gold or a justification in the circumstances that he obtained his freedom. Cato records that the custom of kinsfolk kissing women when they met, was to know by their breath if they had been drinking wine! There is no fruit so wholesome—none so generally palatable—none that can be so universally cultivated—and none so remunerating as the Grape. Its rapidity of growth, productiveness, long life and simplicity of culture, may enable every farmer, at least, to live literally under his own vine. There is not a farmer or planter from New York to New Orleans but may cultivate, with a very small outlay, an abundance of this fruit. I never see long, naked post-rail fences, but am reminded of the neglect of this fruit: not that it does not deserve the very best of ground, the most studied culture; but here is a waste of land and the very support that would produce thousands of tons of this inestimable fruit. The extent of its culture in Ohio and other States is rapidly increasing. N. Longworth, Esq., of Cincinnati, a zealous horticulturist, has one hundred acres under culture, which he rents out to Swiss and German vinedressers, who therefrom have an excellent living, and make him a bountiful return. The fruit is manufactured into wine, and sold at from 75 cents to $1.50 per gallon, and the produce of that vicinity is about six hundred barrels. This is merely “a drop in the bucket,” compared with the immense import of the past year. For this purpose their standard Grape is the Catawba, ​and other native Grapes, of which the following are the best. If our own advice could prevail, we would plant only Isabella and Catawba, or improved varieties therefrom.
Bland or Powell.—Color pale red; fruit round; bunches short, with two or three shoulders when well-grown. Flesh pulpy, with a half sweet, subacid flavor, and a little of the peculiar musky tinge, characteristic of the Fox Grape. Foliage pale green underneath, and more rounding than any of the following sorts.
Catawba—One of the best native Grapes; bunches rather regularly formed, with a few shoulders. Fruit round, of a bright red or coppery color when ripe. Flesh pulpy; rather juicy, and sweet when fully ripe, with a musky flavor. Foliage pale green, with a white down underneath, and more reflexed than that of the Isabella, which it very much resembles. This variety is most esteemed for wine, and when fully ripe, in my estimation, is the best of our native grapes for the table, though I cannot go so far as to say “it is luscious and high-flavored.”
Elsingborough, Elsenborough, Elsinburg.—This Grape is native of the sandy soils of New Jersey, where it is a considered the best of the American Grapes. Bunches small, compact and shouldered; berries small, jet black, round, with a thin skin. Flesh without pulp, sweet and well-flavored. Foliage coarse, deeply five-lobed. Wood slender, very hardy.
Isabella.—This variety is hardier than either of the former, and may be cultivated as far north as the St. Lawrence. Bunches long, tapering, with very few shoulders. Berries oval, jet black, with a fine bloom. Skin thick. Flesh a little pulpy, very sweet, with a little touch of the musky flavor. Ripe about the end of September, but improves by hanging on the vines till frost. I have repeatedly handed ripe fruit of this Grape, with that of the Black Hamburg, to individuals entirely unacquainted with the flavor of grapes, and they have generally pronounced the Isabella the best and sweetest Grape ​Foliage large, three-lobed, with a white down underneath. Wood very strong, of a brownish-red color.
Ohio, or the Segar-Box Grape.—This variety was brought into notice by Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati. Its history is rather obscure, though there is no doubt of its being a native. It approaches nearer the Elsinburg than any other we cultivate, but is not so hardy as that sort. Bunches long, compact, and tapering, with one or two shoulders. Berries small, round, and jet black, with a thin skin. Flesh sweet and well flavored; the seeds large. Wood strong, shorter jointed than either the Isabella or Catawba, and requires to be laid in thin, or the fruit rots off before ripening. The plant is rather tender for us, being severely injured with me last Winter. All our native Grapes ripen from the 1st of September to the 1st of October; but I have found the flavor greatly improved by hanging on the vine as long as possible, keeping clear of frost. There are few bunches that will weigh one pound.
Propagation of the native Grape is a very simple process. They will all grow assuredly from layers of the preceding year's wood, or even of the wood of the current year. All that is required is merely to bend a shoot to the ground, make a hole four inches deep, and place the bend of the shoot in it. Cover it up firmly with the earth; give it frequent waterings in dry weather. In the month of November it will be fit to cut from the parent to plant in the vineyard, or in any other required locality. When it is planted out, cut it down to about two eyes from the ground; allow one of these only to grow the following season. It is also propagated by cuttings very generally, though there are some sorts rather shy to root by this method. We also grow them from eyes, as directed for foreign vines. Grafting can also be accomplished on the vine. Allow the stock to grow till it has made a leaf or two, then take a scion that has been retarded in a cool place, and prepare it either for whip or wedge grafting.
​By Cuttings.—Shoots of last season’s wood, cut into lengths of about a foot long (of many of the sorts), and planted into any rich, light soil, nearly their whole depth, will root in one scason, and by care and pruning they will grow to fine plants in two years; when they should be planted out where they are intended to remain.
Soil.—The native vine will grow in any kind of soil, except that of a wet or clayey nature, and on any exposure and situation, except low valleys, where in some seasons it mildews and drops its fruit. The best soil is a rich and friable loam, under which there is a stony, sandy, or gravelly bottom. They do not require excessively rich soils, but they stand in need of semi-annual dressings with manures or rich composts, and if this is withheld they will deteriorate in quality and quantity. The soil must be properly ameliorated and enriched before planting, and if trenched with the spade or plough, the benefit derived will amply repay the cost. For vineyards, plant them six feet apart, and eight feet from row to row; train them to trellises or poles made of Red Cedar wood, or White Oak. Eight feet in height for field culture will be sufficient; but for city gardens, where borders of rich soil are prepared for them, they will grow to any height, even to the roof of a five story dwelling, and there produce excessive crops. Trellises for training may be made of any shape or form, but those that are upright are preferable.
Pruning.—On the proper execution of this operation greatly depends the prosperity and fruitfulness of the vine. There is frequently so great a mystery thrown around these simple attentions that the timid are afraid even to touch the vine with the knife; while others, whose boldness goes farther than their knowledge, cut right and left with considerable dexterity, feeling satisfied if they show that the wood is at least cut off. To cut the shoots from three to ten eyes of the preceding year’s wood, according to its strength, is a good general rule. To ​put our ideas in a tangible form, we will begin with the young plant. As above stated, cut it to within two eyes from the ground, from which allow one shoot to grow for the first season, and now call it a plant one year old; if the soil is in good order it will be fifteen feet long. In November, or before February, cut that shoot to about two feet from the ground, and allow three shoots to grow. They will each attain fifteen to twenty feet. It is now two years old. About the same period of the season lay the two lowest of these shoots horizontally and cut them to about twenty inches from the main stem; the most upright, cut at about two feet from the stem and allow the plant to make fruit this (the third) year. Six bunches will be quite enough. The plant being now formed, and having made, in the fourth season, a quantity of branches all covered with fruit, it is advisable to take only one bunch off each, and never take more than two. Leading branches will be required for the future plant. These may extend to fill up any given space, but all others must be topped two eyes beyond the fruit; that is, leave on two leaves nearer the extremity of the shoot than the bunches hang. This topping should be performed early in June, and when they make fresh shoots top them again and again. The leading shoots must also be topped as soon as they are at their required length. Where vines are needed to cover high arbors, or reach the top of dwellings, the shoots in the first and second year may be left from six to ten feet long.
Summer Pruning is generally very injudiciously performed. The vines are allowed to grow in every form till July or August, when they are thinned out and deprived of a great deal of young wood and foliage, at the very time the plants require to have it. Go over the vines in May and deprive them of all the branches that crowd each other; six inches to twelve apart is proper distance to lay in young wood; rub off all others, using only the finger and thumb in the operation; tie in the shoots as they advance, and top them as soon as they ​have made two eyes’ growth beyond the fruit, except the leaders, as above intimated.
There is nothing in the above that is not perfectly simple, and may be put in practice by any farmer, along every fence rail.