The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-29

In the presence of the persistent pear
blight and the crown rot and curculio
on peaches, We may yet be forced to
admit that the scuppernong family is
the apple of Florida, says the Florid1
Agriculturalst. The varieties are not
as long in fruit as a good succession of
apples, but the fruit is susceptible to
lust as many household uses as the
great Northern standby-more, in fact,
for good suppernOng wine is more use
full than cider.
The prevailing system of cultivation
is simply a system of let-alone or ne
glect. 1t is no system at all, and it is
immensely to the credit of the scupper-
nong that it does as well as it does.
Our plan would be something like
this: First, plant in rows of fifteen to
twenty feet apart and the vines thirty
to fifty feet in the rows. The canes
should be trained on a trellis not less
than eight feet high; carrying the arms
out each way on a series of wires fast
ened to strong posts placed equi-dis-
tant between every two vines, with
one at each end we'll braced. The cor
ners should be kept securely tied to the
wires, and should be pruned and
handled like other varieties, except
that they should be. allowed room ac-
cording to their strength"
The cultivation should be clean Gull
ture,' at least after the foliage shades
the entire ground; that is, scarifying
the surface about two inches deep
with any light running cultivator,
keeping the weeds and grass in sub
lection and frequent shallow raking
about the base of each vine with a
garden rake This should be followed
UP up until the berries are we'll ad-
in he
should cease and fruit and wood be
allowed to ripen up. Rambling canes
should be pinched in and tied up, and
the general care and treatment should
be much the same as with other va
rieties.
Thus we shall secure circulation of
the air, oxidation of plant food in the
interstices of the soil, and a conse-
quent strong development of the sur
face root-feeders, absorbing the
warmth and sweetness of the upper
layers of the soil, with potash to har-
den and burnish the berries, and to
increase through the medium of the
sulphur (sulphate of potash) the sac
charine content. This is a very i'm
portant consideration and is wholly
lost sight of under the present lack
of all system In its'wild state, or even
under the negligent half-culture at
Iit6Giil SANGlit LiIt SNupIGl IlOl5 anu It's
congeners are too acid, too deficient in
sugar, and the efforts of the vineyard
list should be mainly directed toward
reversing this order of precedence,
creating more sugar and reducing the
acid.
The effect of cultivation and judi
cious fertilizing upon the scuppernong
has been only spasmodically tested,
but enough has been done to show that
these valuable grapes are as suscep-
tible to the ameliorating effect of Gull
ture as were the orange and apple.
DR.. G. A. Goessmann of the Massa-
chusetts Experiment Station. by treat
ing a wild sour grape vine, systematic
ally with potash and phosphoric acid
so increased it's percentage of sugar
as to make it as sweet as the Concord.
He found muriate of potash best, but
our Florida experience with oranges
would lead to a decided preference for
the sulphate If we composted a due
proportion of this chemical with dis
solved bone or boneblack and the dead
leaves and straw and other trash Oft
en- thrown around the scuppernong.
mailing a complete fertilizer, and to
this added the judicious cultivation
above outlined, we feel certain that the
saccharine content of the grapes could
be increased to s degrees on the
Oechsle's scale Under the present lax
system the must seldom indicates more
than 60 degrees on this scale. which Is
entirely too low a percentage of SUI
gar 10 yield good palatable wine With
out artificial reinforcement from the
sugar tub. Every wine maker will UNI
derstand the significance of this state
ment. II bears directly upon the quality
OF his wine as well as upon the cost
of production.