The Cultivation of The Native Grape, and Manufacture of American WinesHusmann, George
Science
The Cultivation of The Native Grape, and Manufacture of American Wines
Husmann, George
Viticulture -- United States; Wine and wine making -- United States
try to adapt the variety to the locality--not the locality to the
variety--the sooner we will succeed. The idea is absurd, and unworthy
of a thinking people, that one variety should succeed equally well or
ill in such a diversity of soil and climate as we have in this broad
land of ours. It is in direct conflict with the laws of vegetable
physiology, as well as with common sense and experience. In planting
our vineyards we should first go to one already established, which we
think has the same soil and location, or nearly so, as the one we are
going to plant. Of those varieties which succeed there we should plant
the largest number, and plant a limited number also of all those
varieties which come recommended by good authority. A few seasons will
show which variety suits our soil, and what we ought to plant in
preference to all others. Thus the Herbemont, the Cynthiana, Delaware,
Taylor, Cunningham, Rulander, Martha, and even the Iona, may all find
their proper location, where each will richly reward their cultivator;
and certainly they are all too good not to be tried.
Now, let us see what progress the country at large has made in
grape-growing during, say, the last ten years. _Then_, I think I may
safely assert, that the vineyards throughout the whole country did not
comprise more than three to four thousand acres. _Now_ I think I may
safely call them over two millions of acres. _Then_, our whole list
embraced about ten varieties, all told, of which only the Catawba and
Isabella were considered worthy of general cultivation; _now_ we count
our native varieties by the hundreds, and the Catawba and Isabella will
soon number among the things which have been. Public taste has become
educated, and they are laid aside in disgust, when such varieties as
the Herbemont, Delaware, Clara, Allen's Hybrid, Iona, Adirondac, and
others can be had. _Then_, grape-growing was confined to only a few
small settlements; _now_ there is not a State in the Union, from Maine
to California, but has its vineyards; and especially our Western States
have entered upon a race which shall excel the other in the good work.
Our brethren in Illinois bid fair to outdo us, and vineyards spring up
as if by magic, even on the prairies. Nay, grape-culture bids fair to
extend into Minnesota, a country which was considered too cold for
almost anything except oats, pines, wolves, bears, and specimens of
daring humanity encased in triple wool. We begin to find out that we
have varieties which will stand almost anything if they are only
somewhat protected in winter. It was formerly believed that only
certain favored locations and soils in each State would produce good
grapes--for instance, sunny hillsides along large streams; now we begin
to see that we can grow some varieties of grape on almost any soil. One
of the most flourishing vineyards I have ever seen is on one of the
islands in the Missouri river, where all the varieties planted
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