122 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHAT PEOFITS IT? 



Some ask, why do you spend so much time, labor, and thought in grow- 

 ing seedlings, when we have so many good grapes already? For the sim- 

 ple reason that I believe we can and will have much better ones; and it is 

 not in the nature of man to be satisfied with even a good thing, if a better 

 is attainable. From results of the little experimenting I have done, I 

 firmly believe that the near future will see grapes as much superior to 

 those now grown as the latter are superior to the Isabella and Clinton of 

 the past. He would be venturesome indeed who would set a limit to the 

 possibilities of improvement in the grape. 



Is there any money in it? Well, that depends. If you get the longest- 

 size horn, and have plenty of wind with which to work it, you may make 

 some money. In that case it makes very little difference whether the 

 fruit is good or worthless; as witness, the Russian mulberry, Mariana 

 plum. Champion grape, and many others that are now being pushed. 



PROFIT NOT THE ONLY REWARD. 



Some one has said that he who produces a valuable new fruit is a 

 benefactor to his race. I don't think I was a born philanthropist, and 

 education has taken from me what little nature may have first given. 

 But I love the work. It is the most interesting — that isn't the word — 

 fascinating, of any work I have ever done. Daylight can not come soon 

 enough, nor stay late enough, when I am doing this kind of work. 



I have been growing seedlings of strawberries, currants, raspberries, 

 blackberries, grapes, plums, and peaches for the past twenty years. I am 

 now sixty, but expect to keep right on growing them until I am a hundred, 

 if I should live that long. I shall never be satisfied until I see a grape 

 as large in bunch and berry as Niagara or Eaton, productive as Concord, 

 and as good or better in quality as Delaware or Brighton. 



Mr. Lawton: I would ask Mr. Engle why he uses the Rogers grapes 

 in getting his seedlings, and what success he has in introducing his new 

 grapes? 



Mr. Engle: I have not tried to introduce them; I have followed the 

 practice from love of it. I use the Rogers hybrids because I have found 

 a greater proportion of good grapes to be produced by them. 



Mr. Glidden spoke in high praise of Mr. Engle and his work, saying 

 the main hindrance to introduction of his new fruits, and his lack of the 

 fame which they would bring him, is his modesty. Mr. Glidden renewed 

 the query as to why the Rogers hybrids gave the larger percentage of 

 good grapes; but Mr. Engle said he did not know the reason for the 

 peculiar fact. 



Mr. Chidester: The Rogers hybrids are not good grapes; therefore, 

 why try to propagate from them ? 



Mr. Engle : While this is true of the fruits, these grapes do not, on my 

 grounds, show rot and mildew. 



