Post-Dispatch

Ozarks found well-adapted to grape growing

State Experiment Station Director Convinced Crop Is Answer to Farmer's Prayer
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Monday, July 23, 1951

Photo captions: PAUL H. SHEPARD (picture at left) inspecting the Sheridan grape. Shepard is director of the Missouri State Fruit experiment station at Mountain Grove. In center picture, ANN GRAY JONES of Mountain Grove, looks over some heavy bunches of grapes. Picture at right shows WILLIAM MARTIN (center), University of Missouri horticultural extension agent, and Shepard (right) discussing pruning. T. J. Talbert, former chairman of the university department of horticulture, says grape growing should be one of the most profitable and dependable crops in the Ozark plateau region. He says the elevation makes for good air drainage, a long growing season enable the fruit to mature properly, and rainfall generally comes early in the season, then tapering off.

By F. A. ---ymer, A Staff Correspondent of the Post-Dispatch

Mountain Grove, Mo

There's a good day coming when vineyards will garland the Ozark hills and wine flowing from the presses will bring wealth to the growers. This is the conviction of Paul H. Shepard, director of the State Fruit Experiment Station here.

It is based on the experiments carried on under his direction during the 17 years that he has been here and those made before he came, over a total period of 40 years. Land is cheap and adaptable, labor costs are low, markets are accessible, and on the score of dependability there has been but one crop failure at the station in 22 years. So grapes are the answer to the Ozark farmer's prayer.

The good thing about grapes is that they thrive on soil poorly suited to other uses, are free from seasonal hazards and are benefitted by weather conditions that are harmful to other crops.

400 Varieties of Grapes

At the station, which has been in operation 51 years, experiments have been conducted in 400 varieties of grapes. For practical reasons the varieties that are acceptable to the trade have had the most attention. These are Concords, Catawbas, Delawares and Missouri Reislings. Shepard thinks he has better varieties, but the trade will accept only the varieties that they know about. For that reason introduction of new varieties is slow and costly.

All over the Ozark plateau, from Arkansas to St. Louis, the gravel soil is adaptable to grape culture without benefit of fertilizer. In 10 years of fertilizing experiments, untreated soil has produced equally with the best treated soil. Planting on the ridges where other crops fail is advantageous to grapes as a defense against frost. Other favoring production factors are long seasons, immunity to drouth and the hardiness and long life of the vines.

The United States Department of Agriculture says there are five areas in the county suitable for grape culture and the Ozarks area is one of them. The others are in New York, Ohio, Michigan, and California. The great advantage that South Missouri has over the other areas is the cheapness of its land, for in the other grape states the land prices are very high. Another advantage is that there are more hours of heat units than in other states. Analysis shoes that the quality of the fruit in sugar and acid content is equal to that of the best product of other states.

Cheap Land

Nowhere, reminds Shepard, can land ready for planting be bought cheaper than in the Ozarks, $50 an acre and down. Labor costs, 50 cents an hour an dup, are lower than in most any other area. The cost of wire is about the same everywhere but the Ozark farmer can get his posts from his woodlot at no expense, except his time and labor.

Interest is growing, says Shepard, and planting is on the increase. Two hundred acres have been planted in this vicinity in the past year. The greatest deterrent is the fact that it takes three years for vines to come into production, but over against that is the ruggedness and long life of the plants, twice as long as the life of the apple tree, sometimes reaching the age of 75 years.

Plants cost eight cents apiece and are placed 540 to the acre, at a cost of less than $50 per acre. The total cost of starting a vineyard depends upon whether the farmer does the work himself and upon the kind of posts that he uses. The producing cost after a vineyard is established is about $50 an acre, including spraying, pruning and cultivating. The production average is two and a half tons per acre and may with extra care be brought up to six to seven tons an acre. The markets for fresh fruit and fresh juice are near. The fruit is bought by the vine companies at $125 a ton. California grapes, produced at greater cost, bring $65 a ton.

Vineyard Men Organize

Vineyard men of four counties have formed the Ozark Grape Growers' Association, with headquarters here, for the main purpose, by co-operation, of reducing the costs of production and promoting quantity sales. Other organizations are being formed elsewhere. The station is advising farmers to make comparatively small plantings and fit the vineyards to the general plan of farming rather than to make grapes their major crop. One man who had planted corn for 10 years, with a production of 25 bushes to the acres, put part of his land into grapes and in the last three years has taken each year three tons of grapes from each acre.

Grapes thrive, says Shepard, where other crops fail because it is a dry weather plant, actually doing better if there is mid-summer drouth. The plants rarely freeze. One year in 22 is the average at the station. The buds which produce the fruiting canes develop late in the spring and generally miss the spring frosts. Only in rare instances does a vine die because of disease or insect injury, probably less than one in 500.

One contemplating the planting of a vineyard, says Shepard, should take into account four important facts regarding a location - whether the soil and climate will grow first grade grapes, whether there is a stable, continuous market for them, whether the grapes can be grown at a reasonable cost as compared to land labor and material costs compared to costs in other grape growing areas, and what yields and what prices can be obtained from Ozark grapes compared to other sections.

40-Acre Plot

Shepard advises that securing as much as 500 acres on one piece, suitable for the growing of grapes, is out of the question. The upland rolling plateau grape land, he says, occurs at intervals throughout the Ozarks and it is advisable to select locations best sited for grapes in perhaps 12 different blocks. As 40 acres of grapes is about all one man can handle by himself up to harvest time, such a unit can be purchased by itself. The proper-sized operating equipment, such as spray machinery, tractor implements, etc., can be fully occupied on a 40-acre vineyard. By separating the vineyards, there is less likelihood of hail, tornado, insect of disease injury striking all at once.

In the procedure of marketing Catawba grapes they are tested in the vineyard for sugar and acid content. The grapes are cut, weighed and poured into the hopper of the press. The fresh juice is pumped from the press into a tank truck and hauled away to St. Louis. Payment is on the basis of weight of grapes delivered to the press.

A vineyard, says Shepard, is a heritage which a man can pass on to his children, not only because of the income but the investment is in land which will yield abundant annual crops for a long time.

Shepard has a letter from T. J. Talbert, former chairman of the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, University of Missouri, expressing the conviction, based upon experiments, that with proper attention to sites and soils, grape growing in the Ozark plateau region should be one of the most profitable an dependable crops.

Discussing factors suitable to grape culture he says: "Some of these are elevation which affords good air drainage, a long growing season which may enable the fruit to mature fully and properly, and where the rainfall generally comes early in the season and tapers off in the month of July. This is satisfactory to the grape because as harvest develops, dry weather with plenty of sunshine is needed for the best development of the fruit.

"Good soil aeration and drainage is usually afforded and the elements required by the grape in producing satisfactory yields and quality fruit are generally found in abundance."

With such encouragement Director Shepard looks with increased confidence to the time when vineyards will garland the Ozark hills.