Grape Culture in the United States

GRAPE CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES In the United States the term grape is generally used to denote not only the fruit but also the plant that produces it; the word vine when used alone means any twining or climbing plant and not, as in England, meaning solely the grape-producing plant.

History.—When the early discoverers visited North America wild grape vines were so prominent that the region was repeatedly called vineland. John Adlum's vineyard near Georgetown, D.C., planted in 182o, first produced grapes successfully on the Atlantic coast. Adlum's introduction of the Catawba into general culture and improvement gave to the world valuable new fruits. In 186o nine-tenths of the 5,600 ac. of vineyard established east of the Rocky Mountains were Catawba grapes and little was then known regarding such varieties as Concord, Delaware, Hart ford, Iona, Adirondack and Rogers hybrids. From 186o to 187o there was rapid increase in acreage of improved varieties derived from native American grapes. Concord became and still re mains the leading variety of American origin commercially grown. The Mission Fathers in California were the first to grow successfully a variety (the Mission) of the Old World grape (V. vinifera) in the United States. They brought it to San Diego, Calif., in 1769. The Mission remained the leading variety grown until 186o, when the choicest European kinds were introduced.

Grape Regions.—Viticulture in the United States comprises three regions which are distinguished by the grape species grown in each: The Vinifera Region, in which forms of the Old World vine (V. vinifera) are grown for all purposes, is almost entirely in California. Eighty-five per cent of the viticultural output of the United States vinifera grapes. These are usually planted 8 X 8, 9X 9, 8X i o or 8 X12 ft. apart. Cane or spur renewal pruning with vines trained to stakes is practised with all varieties excepting Sultanina and Emperor, which are pruned to a f our arm renewal system and trained on a two-wire upright trellis. In untrellised vineyards cross ploughing methods are employed.

The American Euvitis Region, in which improved varieties and hybrids of the more northern hardier American species with vin ifera are grown, covers in its broadest sense the entire United States. It is most extensive, however, in the States west of the Hudson and north of the Ohio rivers, in States bordering on the Great Lakes and in the more central States of the Mississippi valley. These grapes are mostly pruned to the four-arm renewal system and trained to a two-wire upright trellis; of late years, however, the modified Munson system is rapidly gaining favour.

The

Muscadine Region is the area in which improved varieties of V. rotundifolia are grown for commercial purposes. These are native varieties which thrive under suitable conditions through out the Coastal Plain from the James river to Florida, reaching well up into the Blue Ridge mountains, and along the Gulf coast to Texas and northward along the Mississippi river to south eastern Missouri and the Tennessee river. These vines are usually grown on an overhead arbour trellis and planted 20X 20 ft. apart.

In 1927 there were about 900,00o ac. of vineyard in the United States, of which 675,000 ac. were in California; the next largest acreages were in New York, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Missouri, in the order named.

The Grape Industry.

The 1889 grape crop was valued at $2,846,748. Of this 42% was converted into wine and brandy, 47% used as table grapes and I 1% cured as raisins and dried grapes. The use of grapes in the fresh state and cured into raisins had then become important. In 1899 there was nearly i 00% in crease over 1889 in vineyard acreage and grape crop. In 1909, 2,571,065,205 lb. of grapes were produced, which furnished 52,912,396 gal. of wine and unfermented juice, 6,393,150 gal. brandy, 24,470 cases canned grapes, 104,400,000 lb. raisins and dried grapes and 18,640 cars of table grapes. During the decade ending with 1909 the commercial manufacture of unfermented grape juice had become an industry.

In 1919 the grape output of America from 320,000 ac. was 2,513,680,861 lb., used in 32,551,937 gal. of wines and juices, 1,802,421 gal. of brandy, 104,446 cases canned grapes, 28,495 car loads fresh grapes shipped and 395,000,00o lb. of raisins. The adoption of the Prohibition Amendment caused many radical changes in the utilization of grapes. In 1927 the total grape crop of the United States from 710,000 ac. amounted to 2,604,712 tons, valued at $65,000,000. Of this California produced 2,404,00o tons or 923%; Michigan, 51,700 tons ; New York, 51,526; Ohio, 20,000; Pennsylvania, 14,850; Missouri, 7,000; Iowa, North Carolina, 5,135; Kansas, 3,735; Oregon, 3,500; Illinois, 3,440; Washington, 3,200; and Arkansas, 3,00o tons.

(G. C. H.) See A. F. Barron, "Vines and Vine Culture," Roy. Hort. Soc. (19oo); H. W. Ward, The Book of the Grape; V. P. Hedrick, "The Grapes of New York," N.Y. Agric. Expt. Sta. vol. iii. (1905) ; W. W. Robbins, Botany of Crop Plants (Philadelphia, 1924) ; L. H. Bailey, Manual of Cultivated Plants (1924) and Standard Cyclopaedia of Horticulture (1914-27).