The best course
with grape-diseases is not to have them; in other words, to
recognize the fact at once that certain varieties of the grape
will not thrive and be productive of good fruit unless the soil
and climate suit them. The proprietor of the Home Acre can usually
learn by a little inquiry or observation whether grapes thrive in
his locality. If there is much complaint of mildew, grape-rot, and
general feebleness of growth, he should seek to plant only the
most hardy and vigorous kinds.
As I have said before, our cultivated grapes are derived from
several native species found growing wild, and some now valued
highly for wine-making are nothing but wild grapes domesticated;
as, for instance, Norton's Virginia, belonging to the oestivalis
class. The original plant of this variety was found growing upon
an island in the Potomac by Dr. Norton, of Virginia.
The species from which the greatest number of well-known grapes is
obtained is the Vitis labrusca, the common wild or fox grape,
found growing in woods and thickets, usually where the ground is
moist, from Canada to the Gulf. The dark purple berries, averaging
about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, ripen in September,
and they contain a tough, musky pulp. Yet this "slip of
wilderness" is the parent of the refined Catawba, the delicious
Brighton, and the magnificent white grape Lady Washington--indeed,
of all the black, red, and white grapes with which most people are
familiar.
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