The grapes of New York

by U. P. Hedrick

WINCHELL.
(Labrusca, Vinifera, Aestivalis.)

1. N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 4:224. 1885. 2. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1887:91. 3. N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 7:105, 108. 1888. 4. Rural N. Y., 47:675. 1888. fig. 5. Gar. and For., 2:24, 432. 1889. 6. Ohio Hort. Soc. Adv. Rpt., 1890:21. 7. N. Y. Sta. An. Rpt., 9:331. 1890. 8. Am. Pom. Soc. Rpt., 1891:151. 9. Rural N. Y., 50:691, 705. 1891. 10. Ib., 51:19, 63, 633, 681. fig. 1892. 11. Bush. Cat., 1894:130, 131, fig., 188. 12. Wis. Sta. An. Rpt., 13:223. 1896. 13. Am. Pom. Soc. Cat., 1897:19. 14. Mo. Sta. Bul., 46:39, 42, 45, 46, 50, 54, 76. 1899. 15. Rural N. Y., 58:23. 1899. 16. Mich. Sta. Bul., 169:177. 1889. 17. Ala. Sta. Bul., 110:82. 1900. 18. Kan. Sta. Bul., 110:236, 238. 1902.

Green Mountain (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18). Green Mountain (10, 11, 12, 13, 16). Winchell (6, 9, 14, 17, 18).

Winchell is at once very early and of very good quality, characters seldom found combined in grapes. But this is not all that can be said; the vines are vigorous, hardy, healthy, productive, and the fruit keeps and ships well, altogether making a most admirable early grape. Unfortunately the berries, and under some conditions the bunches, are small, and this, combined with the fact that green grapes are not as popular as black and red ones, has kept Winchell from being as largely planted as it otherwise would have been. Then, too, as has been noted before, the competition from the South, in which larger, cheaper and as good grapes compete with early northern crops of this fruit, is limiting the production of early varieties of grapes in the North.

There are some minor faults, too, which under some conditions become drawbacks to the culture of Winchell. At best the bunch of this variety is loose and characterized by a large shoulder. Sometimes this looseness becomes so pronounced as to give a straggling, poorly-formed cluster; so, too, the shoulder when as large as the cluster itself, which often happens, makes the cluster unsightly. There is a tendency, under some conditions, for the grapes to shell when fully ripe and this is often a serious fault. Again, while the crop usually ripens evenly yet there are seasons when two pickings are needed because of unevenness in ripening. Lastly the skin is thin and there is danger in unfavorable seasons, or in shipping, of the berries cracking though this is seldom a serious fault. These defects do not begin to offset the several good characters of Winchell and it is, for New York at least, the standard early green grape and deserving to rank with the best early grapes of any color.

The original vine of this variety was raised by James Milton Clough of Stamford, Bennington County, Vermont, about the middle of the last century from seed of an unknown purple grape. For some years it had a local reputation and was propagated by some of Clough’s neighbors. By what name it was then known does not appear. In December, 1885, according to their statements, Ellwanger & Barry of Rochester, New York, received this variety from C. E. Winchell, then of Stamford. In 1888, this firm introduced the variety to the trade. The same year there was introduced by Stephen Hoyt’s Sons of New Canaan, Connecticut, a variety under the name Green Mountain. This firm states that they bought the variety from James M. Paul, of North Adams, Massachusetts, in December, 1885. Previous to his sale Paul had sent a vine of the grape to this Station; he exhibited fruit of Green Mountain before the American Pomological Society in 1887, but without any name.

Later grape-growers found that Winchell and Green Mountain were very similar or identical. Unfortunately, in the meantime, Paul had died and no one knows positively where he secured his vines although there is every reason to believe they were from Mr. Clough. Those who consider the Winchell and Green Mountain separate varieties say the Winchell has larger berries and is somewhat later in ripening than the Green Mountain. Though unable to make a close comparison of vines and fruits of the two supposed varieties, the authors of The Grapes of New York choose to consider them so nearly identical, if not identical, as to pass under one name which should be the one first published, Winchell.