Sharp County record., 1880-01-15
FARM TOPICS.
THE sCUPPERNoNG GRAPE.

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Northern readers, some of them may be
sufficiently curious to know more of its
peculiarities. In common with all the
other native varieties, it is dI@clOuS
D0lyqanratS, or in other words the piStil-
late or fruitful plants have a portion of
perfect flowers and a portion of imper-
feet flowers in the same cluster, while
staminate plants have all the flowers
entirely destitute of a stigma and piStil,
and are consequently all entirely barren.
This being the case, of what use are
these latter plants? They are not need
ed for the fertilization of the fruit-bear-
inq portion, as sufficient flowers are per-
feet to produce an enormous crop Of
fruit, and it makes no difference in the
Quantity of fruit if there is not a Stami-
nate plant within miles of them. This
is the case with l0bruSca, cOrdJ0lia,
riparta and rOtatndJ0Iia. z. gStiUGIiS |
have never examined critically. | have
been cultivating the rotundifOlia class
for some thirty years or more, and
also have proved some forty or
fifty varieties of the other classes
which are cultivated at the North.
Some years sinca--4 abandoned all eX-
cept Y. rotuadJoHa, which l find to be.
the only one exempt from disease. |
now have quite large variety under
cultivation, having raised large num-
Der of seedlings from the seeds of the
Scuppernong, which is a white or yell
lowish grape, with berries varying in
size from three-fourths of an inch to
one and quarter inches in diameter,
the clusters varying from one to twenty
berries, and it is the only native grape
which carries the Muscat aroma. None
of the varieties | have ever fail to pro-
duce good crops, and the vines are en-
tirely free from disease in vine, leaf and
fruit. The weight of fruit on each vine
is beyond belief by those who have never
seen this class in full bearing. | have
this season had arbors crushed down
with the great weight of the fruit on
them, although they were built of good,
stout chestnut fence rails. Some grape
growers complain that the clusters are
too small; this is not so; each vine is
huge cluster in its entirety. In gather
ing them when ripe, they are shaken
down on to sheets made for the pur-
pose, instead of being picked by hand
as is the case with the cluster varieties;
and in 50 bushels of the berries, which
are gathered entirely free from stems,
one will not find q rotten or imperfect
berry. My vineyard, which is small
one, has this year yielded four gallons
of must or juice per bushel of fruit. I
have one vine, Seeding from the
Scuppernong, raised by myself, which
will compare very favorably in quality
with the Black Hamburger, while the
berries are from one to one and quar-
ter inches in diameter, of black color,
speckled with russell. This class of
grapes always blooms about the 10Th of
June, and consequently the clusters are
never injured by frosts. The growth of
the fruit is very rapid, the crop being
ripe by Sept. 25th. Could not this grape
be cultivated in your grape-houses at
the North? 1t is killed to the ground
when the mercury gets to zero-does it
get as low as that in your grape-houses?
If not, your summers are long enough
and warm enough to ripen the fruit. |
have one variety that ri pens the last of
August. 1t is fine, large black grape,
also a seeding from the Scuppernong.
Vines of this class are never pruned,
and rarely manured or cultivated. The
roots running an inch or two below the
surface of the ground, cultivation is en-
tirely impracticable, and the leaves from
the vines furnish most of the manure
they get. Stable manure is death to the
vines, while they delight in lime and de-
cayed vegetable matter. Another pc
cularity is that the vines can not be
propagated from cuttings, as are other
varieties, but only from layers, so that
it is slow process to increase them
j. Van Buren, CZorkeSUtlle, Ga., IN
Country Gentleman.
CULTIVATE ORCHARDS.
In the cultivation of fruit trees IN the
West, it is often observed that trees con-
tinue to grow year after year, but do
not bear. Thus apple orchards will be-
come often fifteen years old before bear
ing, and, in fact, many of them never
bear good crops. Just how to obviate
this difficulty is a problem that has ex-
ercised the ingenuity of our best cul-
tivators all over the West, and the
reason why no conclusions have been
arrived at by our -6est pomologists, and
that will be generally applicable, is that,
as rule, the conditions necessary to
success are as varying as the localities,
soils and other minor integers surround
ing each orchard planted. Shall we
then neglect to plant orchards? By no
means. But, say many, there is no
money in fruit. The markets are glut-
ted except at certain seasons. True
enough, yet this should not prevent any
farmer from planting an orchard on
the best site near his house possible, or
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