148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



competency and independence. Of course, his income will give 

 him leisure for reading, enable him to buy books, and cultivate 

 his love for art and literature, and make him such a man as an 

 intelligent American citizen ought to be. I confess to you, 

 gentlemen, that that aspect of the case gives me more pleasure 

 than all others. 



Mr. Russell, of Salem. I would like to ask Mr. Bull whether 

 the Concord is a seedling of the fox grape, the Isabella, or some 

 cultivated variety. 



Mr. Bull. The Concord grape is a seedling from a seedling 

 of the wild grape. I do not wonder that my friend asks whether 

 it is a seedling of the wild grape or the Isabella, because it is so 

 common to suppose, from certain resemblances it bears to the 

 Isabella, that it is a seedling of that. 



Professor Agassiz. How docs it behave to other grapes, as to 

 cross-breeding ? 



Mr. Bull. I crossed the Chasselas and Black Hamburg 

 with the Concord, at the earnest solicitation of Colonel Wilder, 

 and succeeded in getting true cross-breeds. They were planted 

 out and sheltered for the first year. One hundred vines grew. 

 The next year they were exposed, without protection, because I 

 did not want tender vines, and all of them but one died. That 

 is a cross between the Chasselas and the Concord, and although 

 alive, it is feeble to this day. That is, it makes a small growth 

 of wood, and needs protection. 



Professor Agassiz. How far are the various cultivated grapes 

 traceable at this moment to their wild stock ? 



Mr. Bull. I do not know a single one whose history is so 

 securely established that we can trace it to any wild stock. The 

 " Clinton " is supposed to be a child of the Frost grape, and the 

 " Elsinburgh" of the Riparia, or river grape ; and that, I sup- 

 pose, is as far as we can go. We have the Muscadine at the 

 South- West, to which several of our new grapes are referred, 

 but so far as I know, it is all guess work. 



Mr. Russell. I would ask if it is not all guess-work with 

 reference to this matter ? For instance, Mr. Bull says the Con- 

 cord is a seedling of a seedling of the Labrusca. Was that seed 

 gathered in the woods or in his garden ? 



Mr. Bull. 1 have always stated that the first vine was an 

 accidental seedling, growing on the line of a fence where the 



