Illustrated Descriptive Catalogue of American Grape Vines - A Grape Growers Manual

209 pages

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209 pages

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This vintage book contains a comprehensive catalogue of American Grape vines, with information on propagation, grafting, planting, pruning, harvesting, pests and diseases, and many other related aspects. Beautifully illustrated and full of useful and interesting information, this volume would make for a fantastic addition to collections of allied literature, and is not to be missed by collectors. Contents include: “Climate, Soil and Aspects”, “the True Grape-Vines of the Unites States”, “Hybridity”, “Viticultural Remarks”, “Hybrids”, “Preparing the Soil”, “Planting”, “Grafting”, “The Scion”, “Summer Pruning”, “Fall or Winter Pruning”, “Subsequent Management”, et cetera. Many vintage books like this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality addition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on winemaking.

Sujets

Jardinage

Potager

Sciences de la nature

Botanique

Kitchen garden

American wine

History of wine

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Publié par	Read Books Ltd.
Date de parution	28 juin 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781528762236
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	12 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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ILLUSTRATED

DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE –OF–

American Grape Vines. –A– Grape Growers’ Manual –BY–

BUSH & SON & MEISSNER, VITICUL TURISTS AND PROPRIETORS

1883.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

CONTENTS.

1. GRAPE MANrAL.

Climate, Soil and Aspect;Atmospheric Conditions and other influences affecting the Grape Histoical Notes.Attempts to Cultivate the European Grape; their failure. The Phylloxera Classificationof the True Grape-vines of the United States, by Dr. G. Engelmann, of St. Louis, Mo., with a table of Grape-seeds and figure of diaphragms Hybidity,by Dr. G. Engelmann Viticultual Remakson our American Species, with lists of their Cultivated Varieties Viticultual Remakson Hybrids Location.AcrePreparing the Soil; Planting; Number of Vines per Seed Cultue.Tendency to Variation, &c Gafting.Various Methods, with many Illustrations Planting.(Continued.) Taining.Treatment during first year. Trellis or Stakes. Cultivating Treatment during Second and Third Seasons. Tying Pruning; Spring or Summer-pruning; Fall or Winter-pruning, &c Diseases of the Gape,by Dr. G. Engelmann Viticultual Remakson Mildew (Peronospora) and Rot (Phoma uvicola) InsectsInjurious to the Grape, after Prof. C. V. Riley’s Reports InsectsBeneficial, by feeding upon Injurious Insects, by same Gatheing,Packing, Preserving. &c Wine Making

Winemaking

The science of wine and winemaking is known as 'oenology', and winemaking, or 'vinification', is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished product. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruits, vegetables or plants. Mead, for example, is a wine that is made with honey being the primary ingredient after water and sometimes grain mash, flavoured with spices, fruit or hops dependent on local traditions. Potato wine, rice wine and rhubarb wines are also popular varieties. However, grapes are by far the most common ingredient.

First cultivated in the Near East, the grapevine an d the alcoholic beverage produced from fermenting its juice were important to Mesopotamia, Israel, and Egypt and essential aspects of Phoenician, Greek, and Roman civilization. Many of the major wine-producing regions of Western Europe and the Mediterranean were first established during antiquity as great plantations, and it was the Romans who really refined the winemaking process.

Today, wine usually goes through a double process o f fermentation. After the grapes are harvested, they are prepared for primary fermentation in a winery, and it is at this stage that red wine making diverges from white wine making. Red wine is made from the must (pulp) of red or black grapes and fermentation occurs together with the grape skins, which give the wine its colour. White wine is made by fermenting juice which is made by pressing crushed grapes to extract a juice; the skins are removed and play no further role. Occasio nally white wine is made from red grapes; this is done by extracting their juice with minimal contact with the grapes' skins. Rosé wines are either made from red grapes where the juice is allowed to stay in contact with the dark skins long enough to pick up a pinkish colour (blanc de noir) or by blending red wine and white wine.

In order to embark on the primary fermentation process, yeast may be added to the must for red wine or may occur naturally as ambient yeast on the grapes or in the air. During this fermentation, which often takes between one and two weeks, the yeast converts most of the sugars in the grape juice into ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide. The next process in the making of red wine is secondary fermentation. This is a bacterial fermentation which converts malic acid to lactic acid, thereby decreasing the acid in the wine and softening the taste. Red (and sometimes White) wine is sometimes transferred to oak barrels to mature for a period of weeks or months; a practice which imparts oak aromas to the wine. The end product has been both revered as a highly desirous and delicious status symbol, as well as a mass-produced, cheap form of alcohol.

Interestingly, the altered consciousness produced by wine has been consideredreligioussince its origin. The Greeks worshipped Dionysus, the god of winemaking (as well as ritual madness and ecstasy!) and the Romans carried on his cult under the name of Bacchus. Consumption of ritual wine has been a part of Jewish practice since Biblical times and, as part of the Eucharist commemorating Jesus' Last Supper, became even more essential to the Christian Church.

Its importance in the current day, for imbibing, cooking, social and religious purposes, continues. Winemaking itself, especially that on a smaller scale is also experiencing a renaissance, with farmers and individuals alike re-discovering its joy.

PREFACE TO THIRD REVISED EDITION, 1883.

The BUSHBERG CATALOGUE has become avade mecum of American Grape-growers; it has also been translated into French* and Italian,†honor probably never before bestowed on any an Nurserymen’s Fruit Catalogue. Its reprint has long been demanded, but we could not consent thereto until we had leisure to thoroughly revise it. The great favor with which it was received, made us the more feel our duty to perfect it as far as was in o ur power. The experience and researches of these eight years, since the issue of the second edition, enable us to rectify some of its defects, to speak more definitely of the merits and demerits of many varieties, then new and untried, and to add a very large number of NEW GRAPES which have since been produced or introduced. The AMERICAN GRAPE has also become of greater and more comprehensive importance by virtue of its now well established Phylloxera-resisting qualities, and though grown in Europe chiefly as a grafting stock for their favorite kinds, every variety has been tested there;—some few, as the Lenoir (Jacques), Herbemont, etc., are largely planted for direct production,—thus enabling us to add to our own opinion that of the best foreign connoisseurs. Nor have we neglected to consult the views of other grape-growers, and to avail ourselves of the many valuable essays on the grape, written by eminent Horticultural authors, and scattered in books, newspapers and reports. DR. GEORGE ENGELMANN, the celebrated Botanist has enhanced the value of our Catalogue by revising for it his CLASSIFICATION OF THETRUE GRAPE-VINES OF THEUNITED STATES. He has, in fact, entirely re-written it, and many illu strations, expressly made for this valuable treatise, have been added thereto. He has also favored us wit h a short essay on THE DISEASES OF THE GRAPE—MildewandRot, which were but briefly and deficiently treated in the previous edition, and which now occupy several pages, entirely devoted to this sad but most important subject. We are well aware that this chapter is still very defective, no r can the subject be satisfactorily treated until scientific researches and experiments may have found some practical means of curing or protecting our vineyards from these pests, not less destructive to our vineyards than the Phylloxera to those of Europe. In this revised edition will also be found a far mo re exhaustive article on GRAFTING than was presented in the former, wherein we promised to publish the results of our experiments which were then but just commenced. Our experience in this now so important operation, and the excellent work of AIMÉ CHAMPIN, on the same subject, enable us to furnish a chapter which to many may be both valuable and interesting. Assisted by Prof. C. V. RILEY, Chief U. S. Entomological Commission, we have been enabled to amplify the chapter on INSECTS by a brief account of the beneficial species, useful to the grape-grower. At the repeated request of a large number of grape-growers, we have added a few hints on the subject of WINE-MAKING, which may not be quite useless to beginners, thou gh we have not changed our opinion (expressed in former edition) as to the impossibility of furnishing a valuable guide in a few pages, or as to the necessity of pra ctical knowledge and experience, in order to succeed. But far more than the GRAPE MANUAL has the DESCRIPTIVE part of this Catalogue been augmented. Many new varieties and good illustrations of the same have been added, and every line of the Descriptive portion of the former publication has been carefully revised. The favorable and highly complimentary opinions voluntarily expressed by our most prominent Horticulturists, with regard to the previous editio n (1875), permit us to hope that this new one will meet with a still more favorable reception. That it may be useful to our grape-growers and enhance their love of the noblest fruit and its culture, is the wish of BUSH & SON & MEISSNER.

Bushberg, Mo., October, 1883.

[FROM FIRST EDITION, 1869.]

Our success in grape growing, and in the propagatio n of grape vines, has been highly satisfactory, in fact, far beyond our expectations. In view of the very great competition of even large, well-known and long-established nurseries, this success is highly flattering, and has encouraged us to increase our efforts so as to produce, for next season, a large stock, not excelled in quality by any other establishment in the country, and embracing almost every valuable variety. We donotto furnish “ pretend better and cheaper vines than can be afforded by any other establishment.” We donotthat “money-making is secondary with us,” we leave this to pretend others; all wedois, that we hope to claim meritreasonable share of patronage, the continued a confidence of our customers, and a fair profit. In this connection, we cannot refrain from referrin g with a certain pride to the voluntary assurances of satisfaction we have received. Desiring to return our thanks to our customers in an appropriate and tangible form, and to respond to a desire often expressed by our correspondents, we concluded to present them with a fineIllustrated and Descriptive Catalogue, wherein the characteristic and relative merits of our different varieties are clearly stated. We leave it to others to judge of its merits. We tr ied to produce something better than a mere price list, something that will be interesting and useful to progressive grape culturists, and have no t spared time, labor or money in preparing it. It has become customary to prefix to a Descriptive Catalogue of fruits and flowers some brief directions for their cultivation, and we have been urged to do the same. We are aware, however, that some short and very incomplete directions, “a few hints,” do more harm than good. They generally serve only to confuse the tyro or misrepresent grape growing as a very easy matter, requiring no larger outlay of capital, nor any more knowledge, skill, and labor than is necessary to produce a crop of corn. This we donotwish to do. But on the other hand we are also aware that the excellent but somewhat costly books on grape culture, by Fuller, Husmann, Strong, and others, are not purchased by every grape grower, and that many of these are somewhat afraid of reading whole books. Moreover, considerable progress has been made in grape culture since these books were written; their very authors, indefatigable horticulturists as they are, have by study and experience, modified their views on some points, bu t have not had time or encouragement enough from their publishers to rewrite their works for new editions. Thus we came to the conclusion that a short manual, containing plain but full directions in regard to the planting, culture, and training of grape-vines, and offered for less than its cost, wo uld be welcome. We have availed ourselves of the writings of our friend and teacher, Husmann, and of the works of Downing, Fuller, and many others, to whom due credit is given in the proper places; and while we lay little claim to originality, we hope that this Catalogue may afford pleasure and profit to some of those at least into whose hands it may come.

[INTRODUCTION TO SECOND EDITION, 1875.]

Six years, embracing the most disastrous and the mo st favorable seasons to grape culture, have elapsed since the first edition of this Catalogue. Our experience has been enriched, observations have been made on old, and on then untried varieties, and some very promisingnew varietiessince have been added to our list, but above all, one circumst ance, the discovery of the Grape Rootlouse, the Phylloxera, has led to a new, RADICAL study of the American Grape Vines. Our business as grape growers and propagators assumed such large dimensions that we discarded the culture and propagation of small fruits, etc., and devoted all the space of our grounds, all our means, cares and attention to GRAPE CULTURE ONLY AND EXCLUSIVEL,Yfor which we have unusual facilities, and a most favorable soil and location. This enables us to raise a superior stock, and to make it more advantageous to the public, and even to the leading nurseries of other branches of Horticulture, to deal with us, whose grape-nursery business is now admitted to be the first and most extensive of its kind in the United States of America.

We owe our reputation to our determination to give complete satisfaction, and to deserve the entire confidence of our customers, furnishing none but good, healthy, genuine plants, unmixed, and true to name, packed in the best manner, at as low prices as possible. We have no seedlings of our own, and impartially recommend such varieties only, new or old, as have real superior merit, and while the demand compels us to disseminate some inferior varieties (Hartford Prolificfor instance) and untried novelties, over-praised, perhaps, by their originators, our Descriptive Catalogue shall save the reader from so me of the bitter disappointments which grape growers have so often experienced. For the sake of completeness, and in the interest of science, we have added (in smaller type) the description of nearly all the old discarded varieties, and of many new ones not yet tested and not propagated by us; thus adding, we think, to the value of this Catalogue (though also to its cost). We have carefully endeavored to avoid all undue praise, and to mention the shortcomings of even our best varieties; we especially desire to warn against the error of considering ANY variety fit for universal cultivation. To this end a study of the CLASSIFICATION of our grapes in theManual, is earnestly recommended. Many failures will thus be a voided which have blasted the hopes, so prevalent ten years ago throughout the country, with regard to grape culture; and itssuccess, now aided by a higher tariff on imported wines, by increased demand for the fruit and its products, by less sanguine expectations, and, above all, by better knowledge as to the selection of varieties, locations and proper mode of culture, will be comparatively certain. Finally we beg to state that WE HAVE NO AGENTSto solicit orders for our Grape Vines. Persons who desire to obtain plants from us will kindly favor us with their orders by mail,direct, or throughreliableNurseries or dealers who get them from us.

TESTIMONIALS,

We could fill a book with voluntary testimonials of prominent Horticulturists, Grape-growers and Nurserymen, who favored us with their commands, and to whom we may confidently refer; but we flatter ourselves that our name is so widely kno wn, and our reputation so well established, that testimonials are unnecessary.

*LES VIGNES AMERICAINES, Catalogue illustré et descriptive par MM. Bush et fils et Meissner; ouvrage traduit de l’anglais parLouis Bazille. Revu et annoté parJ.-E. Planchon, Montpellier, C. Coulet. Paris, V.-A. Delahaye et Cie. † LE VITI AMERICANE, Catalogo illustrato e descrittivo per Bush & Son & Meissner, Opera tradotta dall’inglese da Farina e comp. Viticoltori in Castellanza, 1881.

GRAPE MANUAL.

CLIMATE, SOIL AND ASPECTS.

Whether the Grape-vine is a native of Asia, and has followed the footsteps of man from the shores of the Caspian Sea, and “intertwined its tendrils with civilization and refinement in every age,” or whether the hundreds of varieties that now exist spring from different primordial forms or species, certain it is that, although the Grape-vine may be found in Europe from the Tropic of Cancer to the Baltic Sea, and in America from the Gulf to the Lakes, the vine is nevertheless peculiarly the growth of definite climatic conditions; so much so that even in its most adapted climate there are often seasons if not of actual failure, at least of an imperfect development of its fruit. From long and careful observations of temperature and moisture, in years of success and failure, we have finally arrived at some definite conclusions respecting the meteorological influences affecting the grape.* 1st. No matter how excellent the soil, if there is a less average than fifty-five degrees of temperature for thegrowing months of April, May and June, and a less average than sixty-five degrees for the maturing months of July, August and September, there can be no hope of success; and where the temperature averages sixty-five degrees for the former months and seventy-five for the latter, other conditions being equal, fruit of the greatest excellence can be raised, and wine of the greatest body and finest quality can be produced. 2d. When there is an average rainfall of six inches for the months of April, May and June, and an average of 5 inches for the months of July, August and September, though other conditions were favorable, we cannot succeed in raising grapes. When the average rainfall for the first months is not more than four inches, and the average for the latter is not more than three inches, other conditions favorable, thehardy varieties can be cultivated with success. But where there is less average rainfall than five inches for April, May and June, and a less average than two inches in July, August and September, all other conditions being favorable, fruit of the best quality can be raised, and wine of the greatest body and excellence can be made. The humidity of the atmosphere in some countries, the dryness of the air in others, will, of course, materially change the proportion of rainfall required for, or injurious to the grape. Here, a clear sky and dry atmosphere, high temperature and very little rainfall for the latter three months, and a less change of temperature than 50 degrees in twenty-four hours, any time of the year, are favorable conditions for success. With regard to the necessity of attention to the most advantageous climatic conditions, says Mr. William Saunders (the eminent superintendent of the Experimental Gardens of the U. S. Department of Agriculture), “It is enough to remark, that where these are favorable, good crops of fruit are the rule, and that too, even in the absence of experience in cultivation; but in unfavorable locations the application of the highest attainments in the art and science of grape culture, so far as relates to pruning manipulations or culture and management of soil, willnot insure success. Grape culture has now reached a point from which but little further progress can be made without a close recognition of the requirements of the plant, in connection with local climatic conditions, the most important being that of freedom from heavy dews (freedom from those cryptogamic diseases—mildew and rot). The topographical configuration of a locality is of far more importance than its geographical formation. Where the atmospheric conditions are favorable, satisfactory results may be obtained, even from poor soils, but in ungenial climates the very best soils will not guarantee success.” Moreover, with our present and increasing facilities of transportation, grape culture on a large scale cannot be remunerative, except in favorable localities which will produce the best quality almost every year with certainty. Where the production is low in quality and quantity, and often entirely fails, grape culture may exist on a small scale for home use and market, but on a large scale it will not reward the vintner’s labor, and would finally be abandoned. As California in the West, so does Virginia in the East, and parts of Texas and Arkansas in the South, seem to possess the best localities for grape culture on a very large scale. There are only a few countries where the grape will, in favorable seasons, grow to perfection, and there is no country in the world whereallkinds of grapes would succeed. Species found in the lower latitudes will not flourish if removed further north; the natives of higher altitudes will not endure the

southern heat; the Scuppernong cannot ripen north of Virginia; the Fox grape of the North will scarcely grow in the lower regions of Carolina and Georgia; a vine which produces delicious grapes in Missouri may become very inferior in the most favored localities of New Hampshire. Thus the climate, the mean temperature as well as the extremes, the length of the growing season, the relative amount of rain, the ameliorating influence of lakes and large rivers, the altitude as well as the soil, have an almost incredible influence on various varieties of grapes; and a judicious choice of locations adapted to the grape, and of varieties adapted to our location, its climate and soil, is therefore of the first importance. “No one grape is suited to all localities; neither is there any one locality which is suited to all grapes.”—G. W. Campbell. Notwithstanding that over 1500 varieties are cultivated in Europe, yet the number of kinds especially adapted to the different localities is very limited for each of them, and we seldom find more than three or four varieties to form the main bulk of the vineyards of the different sections; each province, county or township even, having its own special favorites. This question of adaptability to soil and local climate is one of the greatest importance, and should be closely studied by the intelligent grape grower if he would make its culture a success. No existing variety, and probably none that will ever be produced, is well adapted to general cultivation in more than a limited portion of this vast country. This limitation is not determined by isothermal lines. Success or failure of a variety depends not only on degrees of heat and cold; not only on earliness or lateness of seasons, however important factors these may also be, but on numerous causes, some of which we cannot, so far, sufficiently understand and explain. We need but remember that the grapes we cultivate in the United States have originated from one or the other of several distinct species, or from crosses between some of their varieties, and that each of those native species is found growing wild in certain limited portions of our country, and not at all in others. Thus thewild Labrusca is a stranger to the lower Mississippi Valley and westward. By observing what species grows in a locality, we may safely assume that cultivated varieties of the same species will thrive best in that locality or its vicinity under otherwise proper conditions. Where the native species doesnotits cultivated varieties may for a time promise exist, excellent success; but in many localities this promise will probably, sooner or later, end in disappointment. This has been our sad experience even with theConcord, which is generally considered the most reliable, healthy and hardy American grape. On the other hand this proposition seems to conflict with the fact that American vines of different species have been successfully transplanted even toEurope. But it would be a great mistake to believe that they would succeed in all parts of that continent. It was found, on the contrary, that there also some of our varieties which succeed well in one portion of France, for instance, entirely failed in others; and this only proves that we may find in far-off foreign lands localities which exactly correspond in soil, climate, etc., with certain localities in our own country, and where this is the case, well and good; but where these are different the results are unsatisfactory. In evidence we quote from the report of the commission, composed of some of the best French authorities, to the International Phylloxera Congress, in Bordeaux (Oct., 1882). After giving a detailed report of their observations in the principal vineyards of France where American vines have been planted, they say, “But they (these resisting American vines) do by no means succeed equally well in all locations. The nature of the terrain and the climate must be taken into serious consideration. But was it not one of the great difficulties with the French vines to know which variety suited such or such soil or aspect? How many failures were the consequence of bad selection! It is, of course, the same with American vines, coming from widely different conditions of temperature, humidity and altitude.” Unfortunately, this has been and is even now but insufficiently understood. Indigenous wild grapes were found at the discovery of this new world; the legend tells us that when the Norsemen first discovered this country “Hleif Erickson” called the landVineland. As early as 1564 wine was made by the first colonists in Florida from the native grape. The Pilgrim fathers saw vines in abundance at Plymouth. “Here are grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also,” wrote Jos. Edward Winslow in 1621. Rev. Fr. Higginson, writing in 1629 from the Massachusetts Colony says “Excellent vines are here, up and down in the woodes. Our governor has already planted a vineyard, with great hope of increase.” Thus, during the previous centuries grapes were cultivated, and wine has occasionally been made in America from native grapes; (the French settlers near Kaskaskia, Ills., made, in 1769, one hundred and ten hogsheads of strong wine from wild grapes)—“but neither the quality of the wine nor the price obtained for it offered sufficient inducement to persevere.”—Buchanan.