The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-01-10

white grapes and the James Grapes
produce a heavier yield, as a rule, and
require a heavier character of SOIL
NOR stiffness though not too stiff.
Good soil will produce better results
than poor soil. though any sandy soil
in Eastern North Carolina can be
made very profitable in Scuppernong
Grapes.
A word as to the profit. An acre will
set 40 vines. At three years old with
proper care, they should produce from
8 peck to a half busheI each. At four
years old they should produce not less
than n to two bushels each. At this
time o al still cultivate one-half
the land. At sever years cid you
should be getting from four hundred TO
eight hundred bushels per acre. TAX
ing the lowest estimate, say four nun
dred bushels at IS cents per bushel,
which we propose to pay for choice
grapes you have an income Of $500 per
acre, as a low estimate for C year.
Vines live to be over a hundred years
old. The Old Mother Vine is still living
on Roanoke Island, and is over three
hundred years old, and pore fruit las
year though utterly neglected, and it's
roots are bare. No crop you can grow
will give such sure returns. Ten acres
in grapes will insure any man a steady
income after seven years; which beats
any life insurance policy. While it pro-
duces some times larger crops than
others, it never fails utterly.
To and owners who will set out vines
We propose to give contracts guarantee
ing a market at a regular and fair scale
of prices, for five ear or longer, they
to guarantee to sell us the crop each
e we to take all the crop that is
gathered and offered properly at the
nearest railroad station, or at u
winery.
North Carolina has, in the Eastern
part of the state, more than a million
acres of land adapted to the growth Of
this grape. Granting that only one
acre in each one hundred were planted,
and that the minimum crop Of 400 bush
els per acre were produced, and that
each bushel produced three gallons of
wine, we nave twelve million gallons
Of the finest wine in the world when
properly made. This is nearly half as
much as California makes. france
which is not so very much larger than
our state, produces over a billion gal
Ions OF wine. North Carolina COULD,
if her people only WOULD, be in this
respect the SOUTHERN FRANCE OF
AMERICA, and could make as much
VIM as France, the greatest wine pro-
ducing country in the world. We hope
to see the wor started. If the farmers
will make the grapes, we will try to
make the wine and sell it.
There is no published treaties on
grape growing that is worth a cent AS
applied to Scuppernong. Plant it prop
erly, give it ha~lf-a-chance, and it will
make you rich in spite Of yourself-in-
dependent, at least. 1t takes a little
time. Do not prune it EVER, except
when necessary to keep it in shape while
young. If cut it bleeds and dies, or
does not thrive. Give it arborage, and
nice rich soil protected from the sun
and rains by rich loan, or woods-mould,
and it will grow so fast o forget you
planted it five years before. Don't be
deferred by the five years-you have
the use of nearly all you land while it
is growing. and once in full bearing,
you don want, at most I'VE fifty acres
to take care of a large family in COM
fort-eVen a%ff1uence. Even if it netted
you only 500 per acre, and O had only
twenty-five acres, it beats cotton Or
tobacco as a money crop. Don't go in
too big at first; plant five to ten acres
each year: then the posting and wiring
don't come all at once and break you,
and you begin to get some income by the
time expenses of wiring becomes heavy.
We advise if you purpose to have a
vineyard of twenty-five acres, to set
out five acres each ear If o want
fifty acres set out ten acres each year.
In five years you will be on easy street,
in ten years you will be perfectly in
dependent. To any man who will set
out vineyards we will give a contract
to take his entire product. Get les a
shipping point so you won't have so far
to haul your grapes. They are heavy
and must be shipped promptly after
being gathered. We have and will have
have facilities to handle them as fast
as the farmers can ship them.
Yours very truly,
SOL BEAR & CO.