Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1863-03-26
GRAPES THAT ARE GRAPES.
.nr I'LL Creation Challenged.
'aj 81 et1H tu5- -i seaIi8 .'la
c. ". GLIDDEN. OF lRoxroS, o., THE
RRoDUcEF. 9a tit-Ae--

The following facts-for they are facts
lin reference to the production Of grapes
are so extraordinary that. did we not
knotD that whereof we write, we should
be tempted TO exclaiIn, T" Dord, help thou
mine unbelief! % But if seeing is be-
lieving then do zoe belieUs, for there is
no sleight-o' hand " in this business, no
Will O. Wisp," but simple facts in re-
lation to grape production, Of which we
give an & Unvanished tale. I"
G. M. Glidden, toe producer. is a citi-
zen of Ironton, Lawrence county, living
upon small lot in ubout the centre of
the town. We wers his neighbor for
several years previous to our removal 10
Marietta, last June; and his production
of grapes came under our personal OBJ
servauon. Ais LOT is l02 by 66 feet;
heavy clay soil of the Ohio river bottom,
and there is upon il his two story brick
dwelling house, with an ell, TO which is
attached a wood shed and coal house.
summer kithen, besides a wash house
separate also there is upon the lot an
open space for drying cloths. many squire
yards of brick pavement, two walks of
sawed stone; and until quite recently
there stood up m II four of the finest bear
ing peach trees and an apple tree
How much space for T. vineyard !"
The vineyard contains less than eight
square rods of ground, but the vines run!
run upon an arbOr over the paVements.
over his wood house and kitchen, upon
the sides and ends of the house, but do
not run outside of The lot
Mr.. Glidden says that his vines are
partly Isabella and partly Catawba; but
the vines run close together, and, under
his cultivation. we are not enough Of a
Judge to tell 't'other from which"
About the last of August. 1853, the
Ohio Farmer, at Cleveland, had letter
from Clermont county, stating. as some
thing uncommon, that lady there had
a Calaba vine running upon her house.
which had upon it that summer, &" l67
lunches of grapes. all sound" The
Mahoning county Register beat that
statement, Mr.. Simon having an ISa-
bella vine with upon II . 278 lunches Of
large sze," one bunch containing 66
grapes. " To beat this larst. TWO gentle
men went to Mr.. Glidden's young vines
in Ironton, and on an Isabella, trained
on the northeaslerly side of his house
l,0l9 lunches of grapes. They the.
became tired of counting. and saying tha /
they ''already had more than anybody
would blieve'" quit. But we preferred
to publish 9. the whole story in our Iron
ton Register, and took measures to as
certain the exact number, and that vine
had upon it 1929 lunches! -4
Al the same time. MIR, Glidden had
another vine only year old the preced-
ing Spring, trained upon an arbor. and
it had upon it 40S lunches of very fine
grapes.
Not an unsound or specked grape
could be found. No visitor ever can find
an unsound grape or a defective leaf up
on vine of Mr.. Glidden's until be has
gathered the crop!
In 1859, Mr.. GIiddeu offered $500
challenge TO everybody everywhere " to
produce crop of grapes from the same
number vines of the same age, that will
beat mine in the number of lunches, per-
feetion of grapes, free of rot, speck
green ones )" the person beating to re-
celve $500 from him, or if beaten 10 for.
feil $500 to him. The cheIlenge was
published in the Ironton Register. in the
Ohio Farmer. and in other papers, but
no one accedted it.
The vine { then four years old J that
the year before produced ,229 lunches,
then had on it l.543 bunches!
And four vines, two years old the pre-.
cedlng Spring. had on them 2 ,596 bun
ches, and made 30 gallons Of superior
wine
In all, Mr.. Glidden had 10 bearing
vines which made 20 gallons of the best
of 4" native wines" besides grapes used
otherwise that would have made five gal
Ions more.
In March, 1859, Mr., Glidden set out
an Isabella slip. The first season there
grew from il two branches about six feet
long each. In the second season ( (lS60)
be trained sf branches from these, and