grapes for several months after picking if they are stored under
favorable conditions. Not all, but several of the native grapes may
also be kept practically throughout the winter if proper precautions
are taken. Among these varieties Catawba is the standard winter sort,
but Diana, Iona, Isabella, Rogers' hybrids and Vergennes, all rather
commonly grown, may be kept by the small grower.

To insure keeping, these native grapes must be handled most carefully.
The fruit is picked a few days before it is dead ripe and the bunches
placed in trays holding forty or fifty pounds. It is important that
the temperature be reduced gradually so that there are no sudden
changes. If the nights are cool, a valuable aid is to leave the grapes
out-of-doors in crates the night after they are picked, placing them
in a cool building or dry cellar early the next morning. The cellar or
store-room should be well ventilated and should be such that the
temperature is not variable, care being taken that the air in every
part of the storage room is changed. Draughts, however, should be
avoided or stems and berries will shrivel. If a temperature from 40 deg.
to 50 deg. can be maintained, the varieties named may be kept until March
or April. An expensive store-room is not necessary and ice to cool the
room is not only unnecessary but undesirable.

If the storage-room is too dry, the grapes wilt and lose flavor; if,
on the other hand, the atmosphere is too damp, the grapes mold. It is
essential, therefore, to strike a medium between an atmosphere too dry
and one too wet. It is possible that a light fumigation with sulfur or
formaldehyde might help to keep down molds in these common storage
grape-rooms, but as to the value of fumigation there seems to be no
experimental evidence.

Grapes grown on clay lands are said to be firmer and to keep better
than those grown on gravel or lighter soils. Some years ago there was
an association in Ohio known as The Clay-Growers Association which
handled only grapes grown on clay lands. The members of this
association believed that their grapes were much more desirable for
storage than grapes from regions where the soil was lighter.

HARVESTING AND HANDLING MUSCADINE GRAPES

The Muscadine grapes of the South Atlantic and Gulf states are unique
in vine and fruit, are used for different purposes and go to different
markets from the grapes of the North, so that they may be considered
almost a distinct fruit. Not