Vine
the Vitis of the botanist, is a genus of which there are a number of species; they are found over a wide range of the Northern Hemisphere, the majority in temperate Asia, as well as in North America, and a feware found in Europe.
The genus belongs to the vitæa section of the order Vitaceæ. It has pentamerous flowers (five-toothed, five petals, and five stamens); the petals are attached to the disks at the base of the ovary, but, contrary to general rule, they adhere at the top and form a cap, which is thrown off by the stamens as they elongate and expand; the latter adhere for a time to the base of the fruit. All the species are furnished with claspers by which to lay hold for their support on any object within their reach. Some have leaves greatly lobed, others have been nearly plain.
The V. vinifera, the European wineyielding grape vine, is that which has the greatest economic and commercial importance. It is found on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and it grows wild throughout the lower Caucasus and in Armenia. The cultivation of this plant has occupied much of man's time and attention in all nations that have attained to any degree of civilization, from the very dawn of history, and it is spreading more rapidly at the present time than ever it did at any previous one. The endless variety of grape vines in cultivation seems to indicate that the V. vinifera is not a true species, and this view is confirmed by the circumstance that seed taken from any variety of grape does not reproduce the parent, as it should do if it were an unbroken species, but one widely different, and as a rule very inferior to the parent, except in exceedingly rare instances, when a step in advance may take place. take place. The writer has raised hundreds of vines from seeds taken from the finest grapes in cultivation, the rare exception being a variety equal or superior to the parent. and the VINE rule being a reversion to a very inferior type; it is questionable if any of our high-class grapes are to be found in an uncultivated state in any part of the world. The plant has evidently been developed by the ingenuity of man at some very remote date, of which there is no record, just just as our apples, plums, pears, peaches, and many other fruits and vegetables have been; and if man's constant care were withdrawn from their cultivation they would soon disappear from the earth, leaving it in possession of their wild progenitors.
By many Persia is thought to be the home of the grape vine, and excellent wine is still made there and exported.
In European graves of the Bronze Age grape stones have been found, and in Greece and Italy the culture is primeval.
The culture of wine on a commercial scale is dealt with in the article on wine, and in the articles on the wine growing countries. In Europe now the line of open-air culture of the vine on a large scale passes from the country just N. of the Loire in France through Belgium, central Germany, and Silesia; but in the Middle Ages wine was largely produced N. of this in north France, Holland, and in England-either because the climate was warmer, or because consumers were content with poorer wine. The cultivation of the grape vine was introduced into England by the Romans.
At the date of the Norman Conquest there is evidence that the vine was pretty extensively cultivated in the S. and S.
W. of England for the production of wine till about the middle of the 18th century, when for this purpose its cultivation was given up, and it was grown for dessert purposes against walls and dwelling houses with considerable success, and continues to be so grown up to this date.
For this mode of cultivation the Royal Muscadine, Sweetwater, and Black Hamburg are among the most suitable. All the finer sorts of grapes, such as Frontignans, Muscats, Gros Colman, and many others of the higher classes of grapes, can only be cultivated in Great Britain in hothouses, and at the present date enormous quantities are so cultivated in Great Britain and the Channel Islands, some growers sending from 50 to 100 tons to market annually. This great supply depressed the price of grapes by more than one-half since 1882, very much to the public benefit, for it is now recognized that for man, whether in health or sickness, there is no more wholesome or grateful food than good grapes, acting as they they do favorably on every organ of the body.
The soil most suitable for the vine in Great Britain is a good calcareous, VINE wheat soil. Turf taken from such land, stacked in narrow ridges for a winter, may be chopped down in the spring, and if clay is in excess, it should have burned clay or old lime rubbish mixed with it in the proportion of 1 to 10. The best manure for a vine border is one into which finely-ground bones, horn shavings, and other phosphatic manures enter, not forgetting potash. It is well to avoid stable manure, as that very frequently breeds fungi. On the other hand, cow manure sours the soil, and should also be avoided. An authority, while investigating the system of vine culture on the banks of the Rhine, found that growers there confined the cultivation to soil nearly all made up of the scoriæ and debris of the rocks, and avoided soil which in England was found most suitable; but the explanation was that, while the soils in question would grow grapes well, they did not yield wine of the desired bouquet. The vine is easily propagated in a variety of ways-by layers, by cuttings, by eyes; also by budding, inarching and grafting, as well as by raising from seed.
The common method of establishing vineyards for open-air cultivation in grapegrowing lands-as in California is to trench the soil where the land is hard, and to plant young canes at distances of from three to four feet apart, and four to five feet between rows, placing a stake to each young vine for its support. In the second year fruit can be produced, though it is better for the ultimate success of the vineyard not to crop till the third. Another method-more laborious and costly, and showing in greater ultimate advantage-is to put the vine cuttings in "nursery rows," to let them form roots there (as with gooseberry cuttings), and then transplant. Much of the labor required for growing grapes either in the open or under g glass is devoted to pruning and training the plants. Various systems of pruning are in use, for securing greater vigor in the plant, to obtain more and better fruit, to keep up a constant supply of fruit-bearing wood, and to maintain the fruit-bearing portion, not on the extreme branches only, but near the ground. Nothing can well be less like the great vines grown under glass than the ordinary vine of a French or German vineyard, the vines being kept to some three or four feet in height, so that the uninitiated thinks rather of a raspberry garden than of a vineyard. In Italy greater luxuriance is allowed, and vines are even trained on trees pruned for the purpose.
In the United States, especially California, the development of viticulture has been great and rapid. Early attempts VINEGAR were made to grow foreign grapes in the open air, but none of these met with success E. of the Rocky Mountains. Till the Californian grape industry developed, the growing of foreign grapes in the United States was under glass, and for dessert purposes. Four native American vines (of some 10 found wild) are used for wine making, the most important being V. Lambrusca.