35° 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the law discovered by Mendel, and with this as a solid basis and the 

 brilliant methods of Mendel for example, the further domestication 

 of the species of this fruit ought to go forward in leaps and bounds. 



Selection, continued through successive generations, so important 

 in the improvement of field and garden plants, can play but small part 

 in the domestication of the grape. The period between planting and 

 fiuiting is so long that progress would be slow indeed were this method 



Shoot of Tit is riuifcra, the Euhopean Geape. 



relied upon. Moreover, selection, as a method in breeding, is possible 

 only when plants are bred pure, and it is the experience of grape- 

 breeders that in pure breeding this fruit loses in vigor and productive- 

 ness and that the variations are exceedingly slight and unstable. Many 

 pure-bred grapes have been raised on the grounds of the New York 

 Agricultural Experiment Station under the eyes of the writer, of which 

 very, very few have surpassed the parent or have shown promise for 

 the practise of selection. 



From present knowledge it does not appear probable that new char- 

 acters are produced in plants by hybridizing. New varieties so origi- 



