A HARDY GRAPE. 127 



vineyard. That is all over, for it is a demonstrated fact to-day, 

 and more than one hundred acres of grapes arc now growing in 

 Massachusetts. A year since, when we made some investiga- 

 tions in order to ascertain how many we had in our county of 

 Middlesex, where the Concord originated, we were surprised to 

 find that fifty-four acres were planted in fourteen towns nearest 

 to Concord, without being able to ascertain how many, if any, 

 were planted in other towns. This year, within my knowledge, 

 not less than forty acres, and probably more, have been planted, 

 and this does not include the small holdings. I assume, there- 

 fore, at once, that the possibilty of growing the grape in the 

 open air is demonstrated — that the vineyard is to-day established 

 in Massachusetts. I want to say to you to-day what, in my 

 judgment, is the truest way to success with the vineyard, and to 

 state to you those circumstances tending to successful grape 

 culture which are indispensable. For instance, you must have 

 a soil which is suited to the grape — that is to say, a warm, dry 

 soil. You must have a grape which is itself perfectly hardy 

 without protection ; for you cannot, without great labor and 

 expense, take down and protect the vines in a whole vineyard. 

 Let me tell you, in passing, what I mean by that term " hardy." 

 It is very common to speak of grapes as hardy, which, upon trial, 

 prove to be tender in the winter, and hardy only with protec- 

 tion. Those grapes which are hardy with protection — which 

 can be made to live with care and skill in the open air — 

 are not hardy grapes ; but only those which, when well-ripened 

 and well-grown, will, like other plants, survive the severest vicis- 

 situdes without protection — as we say the apple is hardy, the 

 pear is hardy, and the oak is hardy. In that sense, and that only, 

 would I say a grape is hardy — that it survives the most severe 

 vicissitudes of our winter season. We have always grown, in 

 this country, to a limited extent, by the aid of skill and protec- 

 tion, especially in our cities, grapes of foreign origin ; and we 

 have always had our perfectly hardy native grape — that which 

 the Northmen found, in the eleventh century, so abundantly 

 that they christened this coast " Vine-land." I desire your 

 attention for a moment to some of the qualities of that grape, 

 and the circumstances attending it, as they seem to me to be 

 true, that you may perhaps proceed with me in raising from it 

 6eedling grapes, in the confident expectation that in the future, 



