342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



from this grape is made a very good sweet or dry wine, the latter 

 entering into a blend for nearly all of the champagne produced in east- 

 ern America. The vines, too, are vigorous, hardy and productive. The 

 characters of Catawba are readily transmissible and it has many pure- 

 bred or hybrid offspring which more or less resemble it. 



The second commercial grape of importance in American viticulture 

 is the Concord, which came from the seed of a wild grape planted in 

 the fall of 1843 by Ephraim W. Bull, of Concord, Massachusetts. The 

 new variety was disseminated in the spring of 1854, and from the time 

 of its introduction the spread of the culture of this grape was phe- 

 nomenal. By 1860 it was the leading grape in America and so re- 

 mains. It furnishes, with the varieties that have sprung from it, 

 seventy-five per cent, of the grapes grown in eastern America. The 

 characters which distinguish it are : adaptability to various soils, fruit- 

 fulness, hardiness, resistance to diseases and insects, certainty of matur- 

 ity and attractive appearance. It is produced so cheaply that no other 

 grape can compete with it in the markets. It is, as Horace Greeley 

 well denominated it in awarding it the Greeley prize for the best Amer- 

 ican grape, " the grape for the millions." 



Long before the northern fox grapes had attained prominence in the 

 vineyards of the north, the Scuppernong had been partially domesticated 

 in the south. It is a variety of Vitis rotundifolia, a species which runs 

 riot from the Potomac to the Gulf, thriving in many diverse soils, but 

 growing only in the southern climate and preferring the seacoast. The 

 Scuppernong has been cultivated somewhat for its fruit or as an orna- 

 mental from the earliest colonial times. It is certain that wine was 

 made from this species by the English settlers at Jamestown. Vines 

 of it are now to be found on arbors, in gardens, or half wild on fences 

 in nearly every farm in the South Atlantic States. That the rotundi- 

 folia grapes have not more generally been brought under cultivation is 

 due to the bountifulness of the wild vines, which has obviated the neces- 

 sity of domesticating them. The fruit of its varieties, to a palate unac- 

 customed to them, is not very acceptable, having a musky flavor and 

 odor and a sweet, juicy pulp, which is lacking in sprightliness. Many, 

 however, acquire a taste for these grapes and find them pleasant eating. 

 The wines from Vitis rotundifolia partake too much of the muskiness 

 of the fruit unless blended with those of other species. The great 

 defect of this grape is that the berries part from the pedicels as they 

 ripen and perfect bunches of grapes can not be had — in fact, the crop 

 is often harvested by shaking the vines so that the berries drop on sheets 

 beneath. Despite these defects a dozen or more varieties of rotundi- 

 folias are now under general cultivation in the cotton belt and interest 

 in their domestication is increasing. 



The south has another grape which, while not so early brought under 

 domestication or now so generally grown, has greater horticultural pos- 



