The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-06-07
The Foreign Grape in Cold Graperies,


Give man bunch of wellripened
Black Hamburg or of White Muscat
grapes to eat, and he will silently resolve
to grow such fruit himself; and his first
and natural inquiry is, How ale such fire
grapes grown @sN
The process is SO simple, and the whole
outlay SO small that persons of little
means may possess few vines without
neglecting business or noticeably inter-
fering with usual business expendi-
lures, and we propose in this article to
prove this proposition, by pointing out
the way in which the work can. be. done
cheaply.
Cold graperies are those in which no
fire heat is used. They may be construct
ed in any form desired, but the one we
are TO construct is to be cheap; therefore
we will put it against some other building
in the shape of a lean-to We then have
one side without cost. The grapery may
face east, west or south; the latter is bet
ter than either of the other aspects, and
east is better than west. A southeast as.
pect is better than any other. The front
! wall should be from two to two and half
feet high, with a row of sash about eight
inches wide, hung to the plate, SO that
they may be opened to admit air when
the leaves are matured and the fruit be-
gins to color. They are never opened a,
any other time during the growing season.
The roof is Of glass, laid upon the sash.
bars and fastened with large GLACIERS
points. Putty is not used on glass in the
roof, but the sash are thoroughly painted
The stills are laid on posts set in the ground,
or on brick pillars, raised few inches
above the surface of. the ground, 80 that
the viEes which are planted outside
may be bent down and brought under the
sill and into the house. The roots of the
foreign grape will grow in an outside
border as well as those of any Of our hardy
sorts, but the vine must be protected from
cold in winter and have more heat in sum.
mer than can be mad in the open air. The
pitch of the roof is usually about forty
| five degrees-a quarter pitch. At the top
is a row of sashes about two feet long
which are made so that they may be raised
for purposes of ventilation. They are
hung to the ridge and open by raising the
bottom by means of q rope and pulley
These sash are rabbeted SO that they will
lap on to the sash. bars and prevent the
dripping of the rain through into the
house. The border for the vines is made
a foot or more deep and about five feet
wide to start with, to be widened after.
ward as the needs of the vines require
Any good soil is suitable If a heavy coat.
ing of old manure is worked in very
thoroughly. Every fall after the ground
has frozen, not before, the bed is covered
with coat of rotten manure, and this is
forked in in the spring.
| OF course this border must be well
drained. If the bottom is clay there must
be provision for CARVING off the water
The vines are planted foot from the wall
as far apart as the rafters are, and they
are trained to wire beneath each rafter.
One year old vines with good strong canes
are generally used to start with. In the
management of cold grapery, water is
not used inside or outside now, and the
labor is very greatly lessened and simpli.
fed thereby. - Detroit 1ribuns.