SECRETARY'S REPORT. 91 



State, and this fact is largely due to the quickening influence 

 of the society just named, and to the liberal premiums they 

 have bestowed. 



The raising of new varieties of grapes from the seeds of the 

 best natives, is probably the most direct way to obtain such 

 kinds as will be best adapted to our climate, good enough to 

 satisfy our taste, prolific and profitable for the market. This 

 will be a work of time, but it is fairly begun and must succeed. 



Perhaps I cannot do a better service in this connection than 

 to state my own experience in this branch of horticulture. 

 Having pursued it for nearly twenty years, and finding my 

 first opinions greatly modified in the course of that time, I may 

 perhaps save the beginner some time in his practice which he 

 might otherwise lose for want of reliable data to commence 

 upon. 



I was led to commence the raising of grapes from seed, from 

 the impossibility of ripening any of the grapes then in the lists 

 of the nurserymen. Living in the valley of the Concord, with 

 a season shortened at each end by the early and late frosts inci- 

 dent to such localities, loving grapes more than all other fruits, 

 but not able to ripen them, I turned to our native stock and 

 procured from all quarters native vines which had a local repu- 

 tation for excellence, but found myself disappointed in all of 

 them. 



Believing that a good grape could be obtained out of this 

 stock, and that if I attained success it would lead others to 

 follow the same course, so that in time Massachusetts could 

 have her own grapes, as she already had her Baldwins, her 

 Porters, her Hubbardston and other excellent seedling apples ; 

 I set about the matter ; I wanted a grape to begin with, which 

 should be a vigorous grower, prolific, early, hardy, and with 

 these preliminaries of as good quality as possible. I found a 

 grape having these qualities — a pretty good eating grape for a 

 native — and with this I began. In five or six years the seed- 

 ling bore fruit ; these seeds were planted again, and in the 

 third generation I found the habit so broken up that I got 

 grapes of great variety in color, shape and quality, some of 

 them excellent, if I may trust my own judgment. From the 

 original stock, black as night, I have obtained grapes white as 

 the Chasselas, delicate of texture, and of a most agreeable flavor. 



