The two
lower corners of the paper bags should be clipped off to permit
the rain to pass freely through them. Clusters ripen better, last
longer on the vine, and acquire a more exquisite bloom and flavor
in this retirement than if exposed to light as well as to birds
and wasps. Not the fruit but the foliage of the grape-vine needs
the sun.
Few of the early grapes will keep long after being taken from the
vine; but some of the later ones can be preserved well into the
winter by putting them in small boxes and storing them where the
temperature is cool, even, and dry. Some of the wine-grapes, like
Norton's Virginia, will keep under these conditions almost like
winter apples. One October day I took a stone pot of the largest
size and put in first a layer of Isabella grapes, then a double
thickness of straw paper, then alternate layers of grapes and
paper, until the pot was full. A cloth was next pasted over the
stone cover, so as to make the pot water-tight. The pot was then
buried on a dry knoll below the reach of frost, and dug up again
on New Year's Day. The grapes looked and tasted as if they had
just been picked from the vine.
For the mysteries of hybridizing and raising new seedlings,
grafting, hot-house and cold grapery culture, the reader must look
in more extended works than this, and to writers who have had
experience in these matters.
Pages:
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99