St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-02-23
Grapes-Good Grapes.

Flowers are the poetry of nature. Fruits
are the "chance" that nature places on our
tables to tempt our appetites and give US
health and enjoyment. Fruit was the
original food of man, and the purest and
best God planted the fruit in the Garden.
Man raised the wheat that made his bread.
Fruit is as old as creation, and doubtless is
quite as good now as when our first parents
gathered it. But it is probable that Adam
had no Choke pears or Ben Davis apples in
his collection, Among the Oldest fruits
was the grape. Noah raised grapes, and
doubtless there were good grapes before
his day. He made wine from grapes and
got drunk on it, and disgraced himself;
and people from that day to this have been
getting drunk and acting the fool, or doing
worse. Some get drunk on wine, and this
is said to be the worst kind of drunk, as
Noah found it to be and some get drunk
on apple-brandy, and some get drunk on
honest whisky, and some get drunk on
slop-beer.
Because men get drunk shall we quit
raising grapes and apples and corn? l
think not The fact is, the devil has got
loose in our world and has subverted the
use of many of our greatest blessings, and
has generally turned things topsy-turvy.
wanted to write you something about
grapes-how to grow them and what kinds
to plant-and l will do it right now. In
this country almost any of our lands will
raise grapes but the land to raise the best
grapes should be high, light, warm land
| but fat, rich land will raise grapes good
enough for any honest man to eat, if he
will work it right. Your land should be
well and deep plowed and made fine with
harrow, just as you should for any ether
CROP You can train you- vines on stakes
or on trellis if on stakes, you can put
your vines seven feet apart each way and
| if on trellis the rows should be ten feet
apart. Spring is the best time to plant,
and good one year old vines are the best
size to plant. When you plant, cut off
the roots to eight or ten inches and cut the
tops down to about the same length and
plant in hole six or eight inches deep,
having the hole big enough to give the
roots plenty of room. The first year the
vines car be let grow without support.
Keep tim well cultivated with cultivator
orahoe, but not deep. Two or three inches
a deep enough to cultivate grapes any
lwhere or any time, but they should al
ways be kept clean. The second year the
1 vines should be cut back to ten or twelve
| lncl6S anu U6 given otdho " pO tloo anu
trained to- The third year you can set
your permanent stakes or tralis and cut
YOUR vines to three or four feet and train
them to suit your fancy, and get crop OF
fruit that year. After management should
consist in clean and shallow culture, and
pruning back each year to one or two buds
of the new growth Don't leave too much
bearing wood. Grapes are much more
liable to overbear than underbear. You
have to manage grapes to keep them from
bearing too much fruit Recollect that
YOU are more liable to have too many
punches on your vines than too few.
AS to varieties 1t is hard to make a
selection, as the list is large and embraces
more than hundred good grapes either
one of them you would call good. will
give you list that would suit me; but
the varieties are so ample tba. the tastes
and fancies of all can be satisfied. | will
set them down in the order that | estimate
them-Concord, Norton, Ives, Moore's
Early, Diana, Catawba, Martha, Salem, EN-
pire State, Nisgara, Worden. These are
all good grapes, and there are others just
as good.
Quite all the grapes we have rot more or
less on the vine after the first and second
crops The best remedy for rot is to sack
the punches with paper sacks when the
grapes are about the size of No. shot.
This keeps the grapes from rotting and
protects them from birds and insects, and
will keep the grapes sound on the vine till
after frost.-1V. c., IN Progressi0e Age.