Grape Culture in Steuben County (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Grape Culture in Steuben County. Previous to the year 1852, the vine received but little attention in this section of the State. Some gardens had one or two vines, which grew untrimmed and uncared for, running over the fence, or perhaps over the limbs of a tree. If they produced fruit it was used for preserves, and hardly an individual deemed it worthy of keeping for the winter for table use-so little taste had the good people for this, the richest and most wholesome of all fruits.. It was the current opinion that our climate was unfavorable to the pro duction of grapes that were of any value as an article of food or for the manufacture of wine; that, what was grown would be deficient in sugar, and in the aroma peculiar to the perfectly matured article. The Opin ion also appertained that the European grape, of France, Spain, Italy and Germany, were the only varieties that were worthy of cultivation; and as these failed in our climate, the inference drawn was that we could not grow grapes.. We had extremely imperfect ideas of the capacity of our climate for the growth of the vine, as well, in every respect, for its requirements. We did not understand that temperature is not a precise guide, but that other conditions also govern; and although our climate exceeds in humid ity the vine-growing districts of Europe, yet, our atmosphere is drier as a mean, and is certainly more dry and elastic.. This alternation between humidity and dryness is probably the reason that the European grape will not flourish in our climate, and consequently these varieties are very much restricted in our country, particularly, east of the Rocky mountains.. It is known that in Europe the cultivation of the vine has been pushed to the extreme limits of climatic capacity, and in sheltered valleys it is grown successfully far north of other places too cold and variable for its production.. About the Publisher. Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com. This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.