PROCEEDINGS OF KINDRED SOCIETIES. 243 



experience, having fruited both more than ten years, I have decided in 

 favor of the Champion. Neither of then! can possibly lay any claim to 

 being good grapes, but my Champions always sell higher than my Con- 

 •cords, in Chicago, and the Champion will produce more than double 

 Moore's Early. I am in love with the money and not with the Champion 

 grape, so my choice for five market grapes is Concord, Worden, Niagara, 

 Brighton, and Champion, as coming nearer the mark than other well- 

 inown sorts, all being strong growers and good bearers. 



I hope you will pardon me if I retrospect a little and note the progress 

 that has been made in the culture of the grape, and some of the steps by 

 which we have arrived at our present standard in judging of the good or 

 bad character of the grape for dessert. I remember well, when in the 

 swamps of Ohio, we used to go long distances to gather grapes that for 

 flavor would discount a crabapple or scarcely surpass a green persimmon, 

 and we really thought them good. The first cultivated grape I ever saw 

 was the Isabella, which was so far in advance of the wild grape that I 

 really concluded that the best results had been reached. Next came the 

 Clinton and Catawba, the latter of which is really good when it can be 

 successfully grown. Then came the Delaware and lona, the former of 

 which is still among our very best dessert grapes. It has been by such 

 successive steps that the public taste has become educated up to a very 

 high standard for dessert grapes. The advent of the Delaware and Cataw- 

 ba was some fifty years ago, and from that time to the present the great 

 question among originators has been to produce a grape as good or better 

 in flavor than the Delaware, that should combine all the excellencies of 

 the Delaware with larger size; better foliage, hardier, and more prolific. 

 Have we succeeded? Let us see. Now there are such a host of aspirants 

 for favor, that, if I leave out any man's pet, please remember that in 

 writing you might also leave out mine. By the best dessert grape I sup- 

 130se is meant that grape which, all things considered, would please the 

 greatest number of people and put them in the best of humor, with the 

 world in general and grapes in particular, after enjoying a good dinner. 

 For this purpose, I will state what I consider the requisites to a first-class 

 dessert grape, and then state the five kinds that I think approximate 

 nearest to that standard. I shall not be guided wholly by my own taste 

 and notions, but shall defer somewhat to the authorities. I will name a 

 few of the newer aspirants for that honor, but shall select from those 

 already tested and found to be valuable. The dessert grape should possess 

 sufiicient vigor of vine and leaf to produce a crop, and as much resistance 

 to mildew and rot as possible. In flavor it must be j)ure and delicate, and 

 such as to please the taste of the grape epicure, with no bitter taste in the 

 pulp or skin; seeds small and few of them; bright and handsome; cluster, 

 the larger the better if well formed. I will now name a few such as 

 Prentiss, Duchess, Lady Washington, Pocklington, Janesville, and a host 

 of others that I have fruited or seen in others' vineyards. These are com- 

 paratively well known and all fall short of filling the bill. But there are 

 a lot of younger scions of this family that I have not sufficiently tested to 

 speak of understandingly, among which are Moore's Diamond Empire 

 State, Poughkeepsie Bed, Woodruff Bed, R. B. Hayes, Moyer, Eaton, 

 Eldorado, August Giant, etc., all claiming to be the very best. I have 

 them all, and shall not name any of them in my list, for want of sufficient 

 testing of their merits. This brings me to the work in hand. 



Which are the favored five? I shall first mention the old standard. 



