New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 493 



region, this grape was included as a stock in the test. In the ex- 

 periment there are, then, three groups of grafted varieties to be 

 compared with a fourth in which the vines are on their own roots. 

 The botanical and horticultural characteristics of the stocks or 

 fruits are not important at this time; but the merits and defects 

 of the varieties as stocks, especially as to adaptations to soils, must 

 be indicated. Since the first two stocks are hardly known on the 

 Atlantic seaboard, what is said of them is based largely on their 

 behavior in California and France. 



St. George. — This grape, known nearly as well by its synonym, 

 Rupestris du Lot, is a variety of Vitis rupestris, an inhabitant of 

 Texas and the Southwest though ranging sparingly north and 

 east and west of the State named to considerable distances. The 

 species and this variety of it in particular, are pre-eminently well 

 adapted to sandy, gravelly, rocky soils. St. George has remark- 

 ably strong roots which force themselves deeply into even very 

 compact soils if the water table be not too near the surface. Its 

 habit of deep rooting enables it to withstand drouths and seemingly, 

 from this experiment, the roots withstand cold. The variety is 

 very vigorous and communicates its strength to its grafts. It 

 roots readily in the nursery and makes a very good union in graft- 

 ing with either Vinifera varieties or other American species. It 

 is by no means the most resistant stock to phylloxera but this need 

 concern eastern growers but little. The chief defect of this stock 

 as it grows in New York is that it suckers too freely. 



Riparia Gloire de Montpellier. — This stock, kno^vn for short 

 as Riparia Gloire, is, as its name suggests, a division of the well 

 known Vitis riparia^ the most widely distributed species of 

 American grapes, ranging, in one region or another, eastward from 

 the Rocky mountains to the Atlantic in the United States. The 

 roots of this species and of its variety under consideration, quite 

 unlike those of St. George, are small, hard, numerous, branch 

 freely, and feed close to the surface of the ground. This stock 

 grows best in deep rich soils which must not approach either 

 extreme of wetness or dryness. Riparia Gloire is exceedingly 



