Читать книгу Manual of American Grape-Growing - U. P. Hedrick - Страница 107

The grape, as a rule, withstands drought very well, several species growing wild on the desert's edge. Even in the semi-arid regions of the far West, where other fruits must always be irrigated, the grape often grows well without artificial watering. Irrigation is practiced in vineyards in the United States only on the Pacific slope and here the practice is not as general as with other fruit crops. Whether the grape shall be grown under irrigation or not is a local and often an individual question answered with regard to several conditions; as the local rainfall, the depth and character of the soil, the cost of water and ease of irrigation. These conditions are all correlated and make about the most complex and difficult problem the growers of grapes in semi-arid regions have to solve. As long, however, as the grape-grower can grow fairly vigorous vines and harvest a fairly bountiful crop by natural rainfall, he should not irrigate; for, even though the crop offsets the cost, there are several objections to growing grapes under irrigation. The vines are subject to more diseases and physiological troubles; the fruit is said to lack aroma and flavor; grapes grown on irrigated land do not stand shipment well, the unduly inflated grapes often bursting; wine-makers do not like irrigated grapes as well as those from non-irrigated lands; and watery grapes from irrigated lands make inferior raisins. It is maintained, however, with a show of reason, that grapes suffer in irrigated vineyards in the ways set forth only when the vines are over-or improperly irrigated.