What Shall We Plant?
Choice of Varieties
It is a very difficult matter, in a vast country like ours, where the soil and climate differ so much, to recommend any thing; and I think it a mistake, into which many of our prominent grape-growers have fallen, to recommend any variety, simply because it succeeded well with them, for general cultivation. Grape-growing is, perhaps, more than any other branch of horticulture or pomology, dependent upon soil, location and climate, and it will not do to dictate to the inhabitants of a country, in which the “extremes meet,” that they should all plant one variety. Yet this has been done by some who pretend to be authorities, and it shows, more than any thing else, that they have more arrogance than knowledge. I, for my part, have seen such widely different results, from the same varieties, under the same treatment, and in vineyards only a few miles apart, but with a different soil and different aspect, that I am reluctant to recommend to my next neighbor, what he shall plant.
But, while the task is a difficult one, yet we may lay down certain rules, which can govern us in selection of varieties to a certain extent. We should choose—1st. The variety which has given the most general satisfaction in the State or county in which we live, or the nearest locality to us. 2d—Visit the nearest accessible vineyard in the month of August and September, observe closely which variety has the healthiest foliage and fruit; ripens the most uniformly and perfectly; and either sells best in market, or makes the best wine, and which, at the same time, is of good quality, and productive enough. Your observations, thus taken, will be a better guide than the opinion of the most skillful grape grower a thousand miles off.
I will now name a few of the most prominent varieties which should at least be tried by every grape grower.