The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-06
The ScuppernonR.

The SCuppernong has not infrequently
been called 1.-The lazy mans grape" be-
cause it comes so near taking care of it.
self, says the Farmer and Fruit Grower.
In fact, if planted in any reasonably good
soil about the buildings of the farm or
furnished with stout arbor, it will take
care of itself as completely as the pecan
or the orange tree under similar condi.
tions.
The scuppernong is essentially a wild
grape. In its tough, leather-like skin
there is peculiar, strong, musky bouquet
and an excess of acid, which if allowed to
go into the must, takes years to eradicate
by the ordinary processes of oxidation, or
else has to be overcome with sugar. So
low is its percentage of sugar that it
weighs very seldom above 600 on the must
scale. This defect could, doubtless, be
corrected to certain extent by cultiva-
ton and fertilizing; but most people of
finer taste would say: Throw the wild
thing away and plant something better"
But mold; let us see what little COM
mon sense will do here. Bear in mind
that this grape never fails, never gets in
the way OF Jack Frost, is irOnclad against
all insects and diseases, is easily cult
waited lin fact, needs no cultivation except
the application of some good wood ashes
and ground bone around its roofs once a
year., bears enormous crops, as high as
eighteen tons TO the acre being credibly
reported, and will live a life time, per-
haps two of them.
1t is not for the manufacture of wine
Tor commercial purposes that he would
encourage the planting of the scuppernong.
lhls IS problem whose solution has often
been attempted in the south, but most
men do rot reach half way round it, and
the less said about 'scuppernong wine
nc 1net rra1l yr frVrr, 81
wives struggle with the problem every
year, and by means of an abundant use of
sugar-from pound up to pound and
half to the gallon of iuice-they concoct
liquor which politeness requires us to
call wine, but which is no more a true
presentment of the elegant win du pays
which the soil of Florida is capable of
producing than satyr is of Hyperion 1t
IS no more wine than black berry wine"
or strawberry wine" is.
But the scuppernong is so valuable as a
household appendage that every family
who expects to live for five years in
Florida ought TO plant half dozen or. so,
just as much as they would provide COW
and dozen fowls 1t furnishes a table
fruit for month in the fall when there is
not super-abundauce Of fruit To be had
and frult OF quality which is by no
means TO be despised Scuppernong
grapes, when properly pulped and
cooked down, can be canned or made
into ''spiced grapes" or into jelly, by the
skillful horsewife-all Of which
are excellent dishes. If the vine
is totally neglected the berries
are apt to be tough and small; but when
encouraged by even the smallest amount
of cultivation and fertilizer, it will pro-
duce berries as large as wild goose plums,
and their quality will be so greatly i'm
proved that they will be, even in an I'M
cooked condition, welcome addition to
the fruit resources OF the family. Like
all other fruits this vine needs potash in
abundance to make it produce large, sweet
and juicy fruit.
A scuppernong twenty years old has
been known TO cover trellis solid, spread
ing over quarter of an acre, and to
yield fifty bushels of grapes worth 81 a
bushel