Breeding Grapes. 12& 



The third or auxiliary system consists of artificial fertilization of 

 the flowers of closely related varieties, applying to plant breeding, the 

 principle of "line breeding" as followed by poultry fanciers. 



In the spring of 1891 a vineyard was set with vines obtained of 

 Chas. A. Green, Rochester, N. Y., with a view to natural cross fertiliza- 

 tion of the flowers according to the theory of Mr. John Burr. Having 

 previously observed the dates or blooming season of a number of 

 grape varieties, and prepared a record for future use, I was enabled 

 to place perfect flowering varieties in conjunction with pistillate, o:* 

 female flowered varieties of same season of blooming. The intention 

 in arranging the plat of parent vines was to constitute the environ- 

 ment such that the seeds of the pistillate varieties would be necessarily 

 one-fourth foreign, or vinifera, and three-fourths American. Five years 

 later when the parent plants were well established, being the season 

 of 1896, such fine clusters of grapes were produced that the largest 

 and most perfect clusters were taken from Brighton, Herbert, Agawam, 

 and Delaware vines, the two former being pistillate flowered and the 

 two latter perfect flowered varieties. This division was purposely made 

 for comparison of results. The largest and most perfect berries were 

 selected out from the clusters, their seeds secured and planted. The 

 young plants were carefully tended during their first season's growth. 

 Any plants showing weakness of growth or diseased foliage were re- 

 moved at once. Also during their first season's growth they o.re 

 closely watched and a record kept of the several plants in each lot, 

 showing a difference in foliage, arrangement of tendrils, color of 

 petioles or leaf stalks, etc., and plants selected for transplanting into 

 trial grounds each differing in some particular. In this way I hope to 

 save all valuable varieties that originated from that season's collection 

 of seeds with the minimum of labor and expense. From the seedling 

 vines grown in the year 1897 by the John Burr system, forty-five of 

 them have fruited and the fruit from a number of them has been ex- 

 hibited at the Nebraska State Fair. The large majority of vines origi- 

 nating from seeds of Brighton and Herbert, both pistillate verieties, 

 fertilized by the John Burr system, have proven remarkably good as a 

 whole. Not a single purely staminate vine was produced in this ex- 

 periment. 



The vines originating from seeds of Agawam and Delaware under 

 the Burr system and grown the same season as the above described lot, 

 namely, 1897, have not proven of very great value. I attribute their 

 lack of value to the fact that under the Burr system of fertilization, 

 they being perfect flowered varieties were self fertilized and reverted 

 toward their respective native ancestry. However, there are two or 

 three vines of this lot of seedlings worthy of more extended trial. This 



