Manual of American Grape-Growing. U. P. Hedrick
Accessibility to markets.
Markets ought to be accessible in commercial grape-growing. A location in which there is a good local market, and at the same time ample facilities for shipping to distant markets, is desirable. If there are also opportunities to dispose of any surplus to makers of raisins, wine or grape-juice, the grower has well-nigh attained the ideal. Further to be desired are good roads, short hauls, quick transportation, reasonable freight rates, refrigerator service and coöperative agencies. The more of these advantages a grower has at his disposal, the less likely he is to fail in commercial competition.
General versus local markets.
The grower must be reminded rather than informed that he must decide in locating his vineyard whether he will grow for distant markets, for manufacturing into grape products, or for local markets. Determination to grow grapes once made, subsequent procedure at every step depends on the disposition to be made of the product. Summarized, the differences in growing grapes for the two markets are: For the general market: the acreage should be large; the market may be distant; the varieties few; the cost of production low; sales large and prices low; the dealings are with middlemen; and extensive culture is practiced. For the local market: the acreage may be small; the market must be near and prices must be high; the sales are direct to the consumer; there must be succession in ripening; and intensive culture is practiced. For the general market, the vineyard is the unit; for the local market, the variety should be the unit. In this discussion, however, "large acreage" and "extensive culture" set against "small acreage" and "intensive culture" may mislead. This is a case in which a large endeavor may be a small endeavor, and a small endeavor a large one; or, in which it may be well to take the advice of Virgil, who advised Roman vineyardists, "Praise great estates; farm a small one."
The grape-growing of the times tends more and more to growing for general markets. The grower plants to skim a comparatively small return from a large area. This division of grape-growing is now well developed in America. Intensive grape-growing for local markets is not well developed. There are, however, many opportunities in America for easy triumphs in fruit-growing in the planting of vineyards for local markets. No other fruit responds to fine art in culture so well as the grape. Given choicely good varieties and a finely finished product, and the grower may have almost what he desires for the produce of his skill. With the grape, too, palm of merit goes with skill in culture; among all who grow plants, only the florist can rival the viticulturist in guiding the development of a plant to a special end. In cultivating, fertilizing, training, grafting, pruning, spraying, in every cultural operation, the grape-grower has opportunities to sell his skill not given in so high degree to the grower of other fruits.
Labor.
A great advantage in the congregation of vineyardists in grape regions is found when labor must be obtained. Skilled labor is required to cultivate the vine, and such labor can be freely secured only in centers of viticulture. Grape-growing is a specialists' business, and it takes more than a day or a season to make a vine-dresser out of a farmer, gardener or an orchardist. Expert labor is most easily obtained and is of best quality where grapes abound. Common labor must be somewhat abundant, also, in good vineyard locations, for such rush tasks as tying and picking. In these two operations, women, children or other unskilled labor may be employed to advantage. The grape harvest must often be hurried, and to keep it in full swing a near-by city from which to draw pickers is a great asset.
Vineyard sites.
Within a grape region, the site is important in determining where to plant. The site is the local position of the vineyard. Sites cannot be standardized, and therefore no two are alike. The cardinal natural factors to be secured in a site are warmth, sun, air and freedom from frost. These factors have been discussed in a general way under the climate of grape regions, but one needs to particularize a little more closely to ascertain how they affect individual vineyards. Warmth, sun, air and frostlessness are best secured by proximity to water, high land and proper exposure.
Proximity to water.
The favorable influences of water are well illustrated in the grape regions of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada. All of the grape districts in these regions are bounded on one or more sides by water. The equalizing effects of large bodies of water on temperature, warmer winter and cooler summer, are so well known as scarcely to need comment. Hardly less important than the effects of water on temperature are the off-shore breezes of night and the in-shore breezes of day which blow on large bodies of water. These keep the air of the vineyard in constant motion and so prevent frosts in spring and autumn, and also dry foliage and fruit so that spores of fungi have difficulty in finding foothold. But if water brings fogs, dews and humidity, as does the Pacific, grapes must be planted inland; otherwise leaf, bloom and fruit are born in the blight of fungi. The benign influences of water are felt in the eastern grape regions at distances of one to four miles, seldom farther. These narrow belts about the eastern waters are bounded on the landward side by high bluffs over which many showers fail to pass and which protect the belts below from heavy dews. Where the background of bluffs in these regions sinks to level land, vineyards cease.
Vineyards are usually some distance above the water, the range in altitude running from fifty to five hundred feet. Where the altitude is much higher, immunity to frosts and winter freezing ceases, for the reason that the atmosphere is rarer and drier so that heat radiates rapidly from the land. As the height increases, also, the revels of the wind play havoc with the vines. Yet, one is often surprised to find good vineyards at the level of the lakes or, on the other hand, crowning high hills. Altitude in grape-growing must, therefore, be determined by experiment. We know very little of the formation of the thermal belts on high land so favorable to the grape.
The lay of the land.
We associate the grape with rugged land; as the vines on the banks of the Rhine, the rolling lands of Burgundy, the slopes of Vesuvius and Olympus, the high hills of Madeira, the cloud-capped mountains of Teneriffe, mountain slopes in California and the escarpments of grape regions in eastern America. These examples prove how well adapted rolling lands, inclined plains and even steep and rocky hillsides are to the culture of the vine. Virgil long ago wrote, "Bacchus is partial to broad, sunny hills." Yet rolling lands are not essential to the culture of the grape, for in Europe and America very good grapes are grown on unsheltered plains, provided the land has an elevation on one or more boundaries above the surrounding country. If the conditions of soil and climate which the grape requires can be found on level land or moderate slopes, such situations are much better than steep declivities, since on these the cost of all vineyard operations is greater and heavy rains erode the soil. The soil on hills, too, is often scant and niggardly. Level land, however, must not be shut in on all sides by higher land as untimely frost will often lay waste vines in such a situation.
Exposures.
The exposure, or the slope of the land toward a point of the compass, is important in choosing a site for the vineyard, although the value of particular exposures is often exaggerated. Let it be remembered that good grapes may be grown in vineyards exposed to any point of the compass, but that slight advantages may sometimes come, depending on the particular environment of the plantation, and then solve the problem according to conditions. The following are theories as to exposure: A southern exposure is warmer and hence earlier than a northern, and is, therefore, the best slope for early grapes as well as for very late ones liable to be caught by frost. Northward and westward slopes retard the leafing and blooming period, thus often enabling the grape to escape untimely spring frosts; though to plant on such slopes may be robbing Peter to pay Paul, as what is gained in retardation in spring may be lost in the fall with the result that the vines may be caught by frost and may fail to ripen their crop. Frost damage is usually greatest on a bold eastern slope, and vines suffer most in winter freezes on this exposure, since the direct rays of the rising sun strike