File:American homes and gardens (1909) (18153315282).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar61909newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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320 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS August, 1909 length of five or six inches the weak and apparently barren shoots are broken off with the fingers; two weeks later the tendrils are pinched off and the suckers are removed entirely from the older vines, but are merely pinched back on the young vines, as their complete removal might cause too rapid growth of the vine. When the grapes have grown to the size of peas they are thinned with scissors, from one-fourth to one-third of the grapes of each bunch being removed. Thinning increases and equalizes the size of the grapes that are left and hastens their ripening. At Thomery the grapes are usually thinned between July 10 and August 10. In the second tying, which is made necessary by the growth of the shoots that were too short to be tied in the moved with scissors, and the trimmed bunches are laid care- fully on trays covered with straw or ferns and carried on barrows to the packing and storage rooms. In the dry method of preservation, which was used ex- clusively until the middle of last century, the grapes are simply laid in small trays of osier lined with straw compactly arranged in the storehouse. The method is simple and cheap, but the grapes become withered and wrinkled if long kept. Larpenteur conceived the idea of immersing the ends of fruited branches in water, and found that in this way grapes could be kept for two months. Charmeux and Val- leaux improved the process, to which an experience of half a century has given the following form.
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Bagging grapes to protect them from insects spring, some of the leaves which touch the wall are removed in order to give light and heat to the grapes, and many more leaves are removed during the first half of September. Fungous diseases are combated by spraying the vines with mixed solutions of copper sulphate and lime (Bordeaux mixture). The ripening clusters are enclosed in bags of horsehair or paper to protect them from bees, wasps and flies, and the vines are covered with nets to exclude birds-. The grapes are gathered about the middle of Qctober, on fair but slightly cloudy days, if possible. The finest clusters are cut with some of the wood attached, for the purpose of keeping them fresh. The clusters of the second grade are also kept until winter, but by the dry method, which does not require the wood to be cut with them. The remaining grapes are immediately shipped to Paris, packed in baskets containing about thirteen pounds each. As the clusters are gathered the imperfect grapes are re- The storage rooms, which are preferably situated on the first floor of the building, are fitted with shelves which have holes for the reception of bottles containing about a gill ot water. The storehouses of the largest establishments often contain forty thousand bottles. A piece of charcoal is put in each bottle to keep the water sweet, and the end of the vine stem is then inserted. The doors and windows of the room are kept closed. Darkness is an important factor, as it pre- vents fermentation inside the grapes. The temperature is kept as uniform as possible, and little above the freezing- point, 36 or 37 degrees Fahrenheit. The air of the room must be very dry, as dampness produces mold and decay. By this method, which requires constant care, the grape- growers of Thomery keep fresh every winter from two hun- dred and seventy-five thousand to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars' worth of golden chasselas and other fine table grapes.

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