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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



on the raising of new varieties from 

 their seed. But in sharp contrast to 

 this is the success of the French grapes 

 in California. There are occasionally 

 some amateurs in Eastern United 

 States, even nowadays, who have been 

 able to grow one or more varieties of 



roots, and it is probable that in no 

 distant time all California vines will 

 be grown on native roots. The really 

 wonderful success of the Vitis vinifera 

 west of the great continental divide 

 makes all the more remarkable the 

 fact that in no place east of the divide 



&~ ft 



J~/je T}ull }{ouse, ^{orrie of the Corjcorcl §rape 



Cut bv courtesy of "The Scientific Monthly.' 



the old world grape out of doors with a 

 fair degree of success in specially favor- 

 ed locations, but these have always 

 been by the amateur for experimental 

 purposes, never in the commercial vine- 

 yard. The repeated failures, without a 

 single real success, serve to prove the 

 uselessness of trying to grow foreign 

 grapes in eastern America. The ex- 

 periments have been tantalizing be- 

 cause for a year or two these foreign 

 grapevines will grow with a fair 

 amount of promise, and then become 

 diseased with finally nothing left but 

 dead vines and an abandoned vineyard- 

 It is only in the regions west of the 

 Rocky Mountains, and more particu- 

 larly in California, that the varieties of 

 vinifera, the foreign grape, are success- 

 fully grown in America. The great 

 viti-cultural interests of the far West 

 are founded upon the success of this 

 one species. Native grapes can be 

 grown in California, but for no purpose 

 can they compete with the Vitis vini- 

 fera- It is however an interesting fact 

 that even in California the foreign 

 grapes grow best upon American 



will its varieties thrive. In the early 

 history of this country it seems that in 

 the eastern part of the United States 

 none thought of grapes for food. Wine 

 only was wanted. The hard working, 

 frugal Puritans cared comparatively 

 little for even the wild grapes for food. 

 They were not so fond of wine as were 

 the Southerners, nor did they have so 

 much time and so many facilities for 

 experimenting as had the rich southern 

 planters. That accounts for some of 

 the success in the far South. The New 

 Englanders had to struggle to obtain 

 the necessities of life. It is an interest- 

 ing fact that the New England people 

 were fond of rum while Southerners 

 preferred wine. Yet all the writers on 

 the resources of the New England col- 

 onies mention grapes. Governor Ed- 

 ward Winslow, writing in 1621 of the 

 country in which the Puritans had 

 found a home, says, "Here are grapes 

 white and red and very sweet and 

 strong also." He seems to have been 

 one of the first to become impressed 

 with the possibility of grape growing 



in New England. 



"he Eighteenth 



