Essay on Propagating and Planting Grape Vines by Schroder, 11 January 1865

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AN ESSAY

On the Preperation of Soil, and

Propagating and Planting of Grape Vines

Read before "The Missouri State Horticultural Society," at St. Louis, Missouri, January 11th, 1865. By Dr. H. SCHRODER, of Bloomington, Ill.

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Mr. President, and Gentlemen:-

You must not expect from me, a foreign born citizen, a very highly finished essay, on even so great a subject as that of Grape Culture.

I can only tell you in simple language, my observations and how I have carried them into practice,

The main points in Grape Vine Culture, are: 1st. The location of the Vineyard ; 2nd. Its aspect ; 3d. The soil of the Vine yard; and 4th. Its preparation. After these, come Kinds and Varieties of Grapes, each different, perhaps, for different aspects and different soils.

Vineyards should be located, when possible, on high lands. It is not necessary to plant Vineyards on hillsides only, or on hills at all, though I prefer such locations. The vicinity of stagnant ponds or narrow sloughs, should be avoided. Lands with a stiff clay sur face, or with a blue clay for subsoil, will never make good vineyard ground.

It is not necessary that vineyards should always be on timber land.

I have seen vineyards that were planted years ago, with Concord and Catawba on the open and unprotected Prairie, and have seen that they have done well.

The fruit grown on these vineyards was very fine, all large compact bunches, having the finest bloom I ever saw. The fruit con tained all the saccharine matter any could expect to find in grapes such as the Concord or the Catawba.

The most favorable aspect for a vineyard, is the Southern, South-Eastern, South-Western, or Eastern.

If on hills, and they not too high, or too steep, a western, or even a Northern aspects, and they have done finely. The fruit was larger and richer than either of these varieties dare to be when grown in any of the Eastern States. Even Dr. Grant, or Mr Deliot, would have to admit that they were superior grapes. Therefore. if you have to use a Western or a Northern aspect, I would advise you to choose these kinds. In such a case I would advise you to run your rose North and South, while on all other aspects I should ad vise the rows to be planted East and West, especially if you use trellis. The proper preparation of the soil has always been a great item, and has frightened a good many from going into the business.

The teaching that the ground must be trenched two or three feet deep, has been a great draw-back to grape culture, and I say it is time to declare emphatically that it is not necessary now, particularly, as "Father Abraham" is at work and needs all our Irish laborers, for "the trench and tented field." IF we had to trench all our vineyards in the old way, neither America nor any part of the great west could ever become a Grape country. Whisky would never be abolished, and Lager Beer would predominate. "Two for five cents" would be the sign on every street corner. Therefore, I say, "forward," not only "on to Richmond," but "forward" with Grape culture.

Mr. President, let me tell you that we are the pioneers of the New America. The future will point back to us and call us the civilizers of the social System of this country. Columbus brought the cross ; the Pilgrim fathers brought the Bible, but the emi grant, especially the German, brought the principles, basis or foundation for the social republic, and our wide-awake, big-hearted enterprising and intelligent American-born brethren have carried these ideas into practice, and have put our glorious country into such a state that she, for all future, will be the very paradise of liberty!

I am convinced that if America does not go largely into culture of the vine and into wine making, whisky will yet make a grave for liberty, while lager beer will stand by not guiltless in the bloody crime. Karl Heinzen, the most radical of all "radicals," truly says : " Whisky makes crude and beastly ; lager beer makes only stupid ; wine makes free, humane and glorious, while it elevates and enlightens man's heart."

Mr. President, let us return to our theme. Call Jacob to bring out the team with the plow, and cry for Patrick with the spade !

The land for a new Vineyard should, when possible, be plowed in the fall or if in the spring, just as soon as the ground is dry enough, To do this rightly, take a strong plow and plow as deep as you possibly can-- in the same furrow follow with a deep Tiller plow, putting it as deep as the horses can draw, turning the subsoil, or at least well pulverizing it, and so go over all the land. If you have time enough it will be better to let the land lie for a few days or weeks before laying off your rows-- eight feet apart is the preferred distance. To lay off your rows and have them straight, take pols eight or ten feet long, and put them at the end of the rows-- on each pole put a handkerchief, cap or a loyal, and if possible, a radical newspaper-- use the pols as a guide. Then with a good team, plow a furrow straight between the poles from one side of the vineyard to the other,-- changing your guide poles for each row. After making the first furrow across the field, returning make another furrow two (2) feet from the first-- so go up and down each row with the plow until you have thrown out a ditch, say two feet wide, along where each row of vines are to be planted. Now take Patrick with the spade, and have him spade the ground you have so plowed, as deeply as he can. That is, have him spade the bottom of the furrow thoroughly. If you have rotten manure, ashes or compost, go along each row with your wagon or cart, and throw in two or four inches of the manure into each ditch, covering the bottom well with it. Now put your plow on again. and plow so that every ditch will be filled up and a ridge formed alone each row. By this plowing and spading you loosen the soil two or three feet deep. This frequent plowing thoroughly pulverizes the soil, and leaves it in a fit condition to be penetrated by the tender rootlets of the young vines. I will be seen that in preparing the ground in this way you will have an open drain on either side of each row of vines. It would be better if all these side drains could empty into an open drain, of larger size, at the end or ends of these small ones-- now you are ready for planting.

If you have no faithful German, go to work yourself-- with a common garden hoe, make a slanting, shallow hole into your ridge, where you wish to plant the first vine. Take your vine from its water bath, in a bucket, where it should be kept until the moment before planting, or from its grouted bed, spread out the roots and cover your vine. To every vine put down a small stake 3 or 4 feet long-- to this your vine is to be tied during its first year's growth-- trim your vine so that you have but one eve above the ground. With your six or eight feet pole, measure off for your next vine and plant as before and so on until you get through your vineyard. It you have anything suitable, it would pay you to mulch your vine row. It will save you many a vine during the hot, dry days of our summers, and at the same time will enrich your ground.

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You can now plow your ground between your rows, and between each row of vines, plant two rows of strawberry plants-- keep these plant in rows by frequently using the Cultivator between the grape rows and the strawberry plants. By this you keep your strawberries within bounds, and at the same time you keep the ground around your vines in good condition. Let no weeds grow in your vineyard-- nor amongst your strawberry plants. By this plan of raising strawberries, last year, I sold over $3,000 worth from four acres of my old vineyard. These plants will pay you for all the treatment of the land as well as for the vines. IT is very essen tial to have good healthy vines for planting any vineyard. The most failures have been made in consequence of planting inferior plants. Many good varieties of grapes have been condemned and called "humbugs," by reason of nothing but inferior "steam plants" buyers. I have had to pay dearly for my experience in this line.

Mr. President, my experience has taught me that the very best vines, in all cases, are those raised as layers. These layers must be grown from well ripened wood from bearing vines. The next best, I have found to be long cuttings, grown by proper treatment

Vines from Layers.-- These can be made by any thinking man, very readily, and one having a few good vines can soon have as many vines as he will want. If we want to see grape culture flourish we must teach people how to get good vines. and how to get them cheap. To make layers, prepare your ground so that it will be well pulverized around the vine you wish to lay down. Under the cane you wish to lay down, dig out a slight trench. with your hand, bend down the lowest cane or branch, and pin it down to the bottom of the trench. Lay your vine in its whole length, and there let it lie until the eyes have made a growth of 6 or 6 inches, then fill up half your trench with good soil-- in a week or so fill in the rest of the soil. When the young canes have made a growth of two or three feet pinch off the ends, in order to get riper and stronger wood, and plump eyes, and then leave them to take care of them selves until fall. In the fall cut them loose from the mother vine, dig them up and cut them apart, so that you have a good cane from plants. If your cane is 7 feet long, you will have perhaps some twenty or thirty-five No. 1 layers from it. Some of my bearing vines have made me, in this way, over 100 extra good layers. You can imagine how many you can make from an acre of, say wood enough for over a gallon of wine to each vine, and enough to make fifty superior layers. I cannot recommend you to follow this heavy layering from your bearing vines, year after year, for you assuredly weaken your vine by so doing. Be moderate in your layers, and you will be all right.

Plants from long Cuttings.-- Cut your canes in the fall, with from 2 to 5 eyes joints each, tie them in bundles of convenient size ; say from fifty to a hundred, bury them in the ground, selecting a dry place, and surrounded with a little ditch-- cover well with soil, and over that put a thick covering of litter or of manure. Before planting, have your ground well spaded, 2 feet deep, and en riched with potted manure. In April begin to plant-- make a straight furrow 8 inches deep. IF you are not on sandy ground, and if you can get sand, it would be well to spread a little in the bottom of each furrow-- lay your cuttings slanting to the furrow, so that the upper eye is just covered with the surface soil ; fill your furrow half full, treading the soil with the foot round each cutting, then fill the rest of the furrow. Make your next row about one foot from the first, and so on over the whole piece. If convenient you had better put on a mulch, of say two inches or so of dead leaves. This will be a great help in carrying your cuttings safely through the summer drought, and it keeps down the weeds. If you want to make your success more certain, it will be well to give your cut ting bed some sort of shelter to keep off the sun. Drive stakes in the ground, upon which lay poles, and on them twigs or branches of tress having the leaves left on. when cut green. Leave this shelter until your cuttings have made a growth o two or three inches, removing the shelter during a cool "spell," or just before a rain storm. Keep the weeds down. The dead leaf mulch should be put on in this case. and if too dry, frequent watering will pay you well. If your cuttings have been good, you should not lose more than 5 per cent of them. If you plant varieties liable to mildew, I would advise you to have your shelter on until August, for shelter is often and most always a perfect preventative of [mildev?.]

Mr. President, you now have my secrets on Grape culture, and you see they are simple enough. In this business, as in all others, the principle required by one embarking, is common sense, no fear of work and unswerving perseverance. With these, any man can succeed. I trust these few disjointed remarks may encourage more than one to join us in the great work we have in hand.

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ESSAY.---Dr. H. Schroder's New System of Grape Culture and Preventive of Grape Rot.

Revolution everywhere! So in Grape Culture. Much is said and written in regard to the most dreadful disease, the Grape Rot ; underdraining, ditching, subsoiling from 18 inches to 3 feet. long and short trimming, Sulphur, Lime and Sulphate of Lime, most everything is tried to prevent or to cure the Grape rot. but all failed more or less. New varieties it was hoped would not be liable to the rot. but this also has failed in most cases. The vine that rots the most, is surely the celebrated Catawba ; and let me tell here, my friend, that where ever the Catawba will ripen, and in its perfect state, free from disease, it is a splendid grape, spicy, showy, aromatic and vinous, and makes a superior wine; a wine that speaks to our heart, as it is said that it has such a fine effect on our heart organs. Pity that the Catawba, in consequence of the awful rot, became so much discarded ; but I do not blame its antagonists among Vineyardists, as they had suffered so much under its culture.

Years ago I noticed that the first crop of Catawba vines was not injured by the rot, as well in other people's vineyards as in my own. I never forget the sight of my first Catawba crop. when the fruit on my neighbors vines was rotting, mine stood there in per fect health and glory. This I noticed on all my first fruiting Catawbas, as my vineyards were planted in successive years. I further noticed that the fruit on my old wood layers, that I used to make every year, were free from rot. I then laid down several old wood layers and cut them off from the mother vine in the Fall, and found this year that the fruit on these new vines was perfectly heal thy, when the fruit on old vines rotted entirely.

This last year was the hardest year for Catawba Vineyardists, and the losses can be counted by near two millions of dollars in the West alone.

As proof I want to say, and to prove the truth of my system, that the Catawba vineyards bearing first time, (Mr. G. Lange's and Mr Schonebeck's,) were a perfect exhibition of Grapes when older vines close by rotted entirely. Years ago it was said Nau voo, Warsaw and Alton, in our State, had a peculiar soil to perfect the Catawba. But I denied it in our public Horticultural gath erings. and it has shown that the Catawba will rot as well there as in Cincinnati and Herman or elsewhere. The Islands in Lake Erie, it was said, were entirely free from rot, but the demon went there too, and will be worse next year when the vines will become older. All these facts led me to a new system of Grape Culture, as most all our Grape Vines growing older, will be more or less inclined to the rot. I claim this as my own discovery.

REMEDY: After preparing your land for the vineyards, plant the same with good strong layers of first rate cutting plants from 8 to 12 feet apart in a square, in the usual manner: when your vines come in to bearing the first big crop, say the third or

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fourth year after planting, take one strong cane of the bearing vine raised for this purpose, close to the root of the vine, make a little ditch with the hoe or spade from 4 to 6 inches deep in the row up to the center between your two bearing vines; let this cane stick about one foot out of the ground, and after covering your ditch, cut it off; as I said one foot above the ground, this I will call the first reverse. Let from this grow three unchecked vines ; two of them are for fruiting the next year and can be cut long to give a good crop of fruit. The third cane is for the second reverse

Cut your first reverse lose in the Spring from the mother vine ; let the mother vine bear a good crop or two, if you choose as the case may be, then chop it away to give room for the second or third reverse.

Let us go back now to the second reverse. Take the third cane of the first reverse, lay it across the row up to the center of the row, as before described, 4 to 6 inches deep, and one foot above the ground, cut it off.

Now you have instead of one, two rose of vines. Let again three canes grow of the second reverse,-- two fruiting and one for the third reverse. The third reverse is made by layering the cane of the second reverse in the new row up to the center of the new row, and treat it the same way as the other reverses were treated. The fourth reverse is made by taking a cane, (in the second year after fruiting,) from the first reverse, and after chopping the original mother vine out, to become the mothers place, one-third of the vines or as the case may be one-fourth are removed every year by chopping out and thus making room for other reverses, and so on till "The Day of Judgment."

You will have in this way, by little labor and without any doctoring, always a new and vigorous Vineyard, free from disease, and paying well for your labor, superior fruit and wine. IT may be that in some slower growers than Catawba and Concords, that you can make the reverse only every 2 years, but good healthy vines in good soil and locality will stand the reverse almost every year.

This is mainly written or recommended for Catawba and other varieties of great value, but adopted and inclined to rot. When ever a variety proves free from disease, grow it as long as you can profitably without reverse. But one thing is sure, the finest fruits always grow with me on young vines. So a gentleman said to day, it was with Peaches in the Southern part of our State.

I hope that every one who grows a Catawba vine, or any other vine inclined to rot, will give my new system a fair trial, and re port publicly the result. Anything not plainly understood, I will explain, on application, with the greatest pleasure. My object is hard-working man ; and if this, my new discovery, shall do them good it will make me happy.

Your Friend,

Dr. H. Schroder.

BLOOMINGTON, Illinois, January, 1866/

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Record of Cost and Profits of Grape Culture.

THIS IS FOR THE PRESENT TIME COST OF ONE ACRE OF CATAWBA.

[This estimate is made for most all the Western States.]

Prepare the land by double deep plowing, according to my system above described................................................$ 20 00

600 No. 1 two year old Plants, to be planted 6 by 12 ft., in order to renew one third of the vines every year, to keep them vigorous, young, and to prevent mildew and rof, $8 per hundred, makes...................................................... 48 00

600 Vine Poles, 10 ft. high, 2 inches thick, 5 cts. each ...... 30 00

600 poles for Reverse Vines, 5 ft. high, 2 cts. each, .......... 12 00

Attendance during two years ......................................... 50 00 - $160 00

Profits of the above One Acre of Catawba.

First year plant between the rows, in the centre, one row of Strawberry plants and cultivate ; the runners made dur ing Summer will pay for outlay of plants and labor.

Second year, by good attendance, will yield 1200 quarts of Strawberries, at 12 1/2 cts. per quart .............................$ 150 00

Third year, 800 quarts of Strawberries, at 12 1/2 cts........... 100 00

2000 lbs. of Grapes, at 15 cts............................................ 300 00 - $500 00

Now take your strawberry plants up and sell the young plants or plow them under.

Fourth Year.-- Now your Vineyard begins to bear a full crop ; lay one arm of the bearing Vines down, 4 inches deep. the end of the layer to come up middle-way between two vines of the row, (See Essay, "New System of Grape Culture."

Fourth Year-- 8000 lbs. of Grapes, at 15 cts...................$ 1200 00

The clippings of the vines you may sell in the form of cuttings, or have a little spot to put them out and raise plants for sale, and thus will bring you an income of $200 to $400-- enough to pay for all the work of the Vineyard yearly.

So it goes on for 50 or 100 years, if you keep your vines always reversed-- that is, young. If you have no market for your grapes, make them into wine. Twelve lbs. of good Grapes will make a gallon of Wine, worth now from $1 50 to $ a gallon

COST OF AN ACRE OF CONCORD VINEYARD.

An acre of Concord Vineyard costs about $40 more than of Ca twbas, or say....................................................................$200 00

Profits on an Acre of Concord Vineyard.

Do the same as with the Catawba. and raise Strawberries be tween the rows. First year the surplus Strawberry plants will pay for the labor.

Second year will yield 1200 quarts of Strawberries...........$150 00

From the clippings of the Vines, 10,000 cuttings worth 100 00 - $250 00

If you will grow these cuttings into young plants, you will make ten time as much out of the Vines.

Third year, 800 quarts Strawberries ................................ 100 00 3000 lbs. of Grapes at 15 cts. .......................................... 450 00 15000 cuttings from the clippings .................................. 150 00 - $700 00

Or if you grow plants from them, you will make at least $800 out of the cuttings, which will make.......................1350 00

Fourth year, 6000 lbs. of Grapes at 15 ct. ....................... 900 00

20,000 cuttings............................................................ 200 00 - $1100 00

If you grow the cuttings into plants you can make $1000 or say .......................................................................$ 800 00

Making .................................................................... 1900 00

so it goes on every year, if you keep the Vineyard young ad vigorous.

Norton's Virginia

will pay still more than the Concord, and the Delaware, Hartford Prolific, Diana Perkins, and many other good Table Grapes, will pay always well.

Clinton and Ives Seedling

Will pay better even than Concord for Wine, as their juice is dark red. the Wine has a good price, and after the first pressing, you can water the Hulls with Grape Sugar Water and make a splendid drink, equal to some Missouri and California Wines. I call these "STRETCHED WINES," and wish my friends may adopt this peculiar and fancy name.

I have a little work on Grape Culture and Wine Making under the pen, and will give the "Stretched Wines" and their History a long chapter, without regard as to whom I may please, tickle or hurt.

My friends may be assured that in case of enquiry to me, they shall have all the benefit of my experience and my future hopes of Grape Culture,

The Public's Obedient Servant,

Dr. H. Schroder.

BLOOMINGTON, Illinois, January 1st, 1867.

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