128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from this hardy native stock, you will be able to get grapes of 

 excellent quality for the table and for wine, and as hardy and 

 enduring as the present native grape. Only in that way, it 

 seems to me, shall we be able to establish the vineyard success- 

 fully ; only in that way shall we be able to get grapes good 

 enough for all our purposes, and which will add another staple 

 to the granite and ice, which are said to be the only staples of 

 Massachusetts. I confidently believe that we shall have the 

 grape added to our products. I believe that in a former period 

 of the world's history — perhaps before the ice period —it was, 

 like the indigenous grape of the East, of a greatly superior 

 quality to the grape of the present day. Perhaps it was oblit- 

 erated during the ice period, but the seeds remained in the 

 debris. Or, possibly, from the South it crept North by slow 

 degrees, many of the plants dying, but many adapting them- 

 selves to the climate, though suffering, in consequence, of the 

 shorter seasons than the grape is known to require in other 

 parts of the world. I suppose this may be true, because our 

 grape is distinct from that of the East : and if the indigenous 

 grape of the East was always good, as we have reason to believe 

 — for the vineyard grapes of to-day have been grown from that 

 — then I conclude that this was originally a much better grape, 

 but suffered under these disastrous circumstances, losing its good 

 quality, acquiring a thick pulp, a placenta-like substance sur- 

 rounding the seeds, which protects them from the severity of the 

 season, and helps them to ripen if they fall prematurely. The 

 pulp is disagreeable to us to cat, yet that pulpiness, that thick- 

 ness of the skin, and that coarseness of habit are all incident to 

 the processes of nature, which hardened them to new condi- 

 tions, and enabled them to survive the severe climate to which 

 they were exposed. 



Now, if that be true, we, by successive reproductions from 

 seed, are simply restoring the grape to its pristine excellence ; 

 we are not debilitating, we are not altering much ; but simply 

 restoring it to its original condition. But however that may 

 be, this fact is established — that by a constant reproduction 

 from seeds, you can ameliorate the quality of the grape ; and 

 since it is reasonable to suppose that a process like that once 

 begun will not find its limit immediately, we expect to achieve 

 still further successes, and to ameliorate the grape to that condi- 



