62 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



-winter-kill. On -warm, dry, light soils it often produces even to excess, mak- 

 ing growths of short jointed and fnlly matured wood. It can hardly be called 

 an early grape, although it will be found sweet and comparatively palatable, 

 even when but partially colored, and to those who do not ol ject to its " foxy" 

 or as it is sometimes called "catty" aroma, it will be found just tolerable. It 

 is usually eatable as soon as the middle of September, but will continue to 

 improve in quality till injured by severe frosts. 



THE CONCORD GRAPE. 



Was originated and introduced to the public by E. W. Bull, of Concord, 

 Mass. It received its name from the place of its origin, — the town of Concord ; 

 very near the spot so memorable in history as the Concord battle ground. The 

 first extended notice of this grape appeared in Hovey's Magazine of Horti- 

 culture, for February, 1854, accompanied with a description and outline. It ia 

 described as follows: 



" Bunch, large, long, neither compact nor loose, handsomely shouldered. Ber- 

 ries, roundish, large, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, sometimes measur- 

 ing an inch. Skin, thin, very dark, covered with a thick blue bloom. Flesh, 

 ■very juicy, nearly or quite free from pulp. Flavor rich, saccharine and sprightly, 

 ■with much of the delicious aroma of the Catawba. Vine, very vigorous, making 

 strong wood. Leaves, very large, thick, strongly nerved, not much lobed, and 

 woolly beneath." 



Mr. Bull gives the following history of its origin : Some years previous to its 

 origin he found a chance seedling growing upon his grounds, near a wall. As 

 there were no wild grapes in the vicinity of his place he removed it to hia 

 garden, where he watched it witb some care, and gave»it good cultivation. In 

 a year or two it produced a few bunches of fruit, ripening as early as the last 

 of August, aud remarkably sweet and free from the foxy flavor of the wild type. 

 The idea at once occurred to him that another generation would be still a 

 greater improvement, and a parcel of seeds was saved for planting. The Con- 

 cord grape is the produce of these seeds. 



This grape was first disseminated in the spring of 1854; having first fruited 

 four years previously. The vine from which sprang the seeds spoken of had 

 been planted near a vine of Catawba; hence the producer infers that such 

 seeds may have been the result of a natural hybridization with that variety. 



As a rule, new varieties, at their first introduction, are over praised, and no 

 doubt honestly over-estimated, by their partial and usually enthusiastic intro- 

 ducers ; and we can hardly fail to discover, from the above description, that 

 this variety is not to be considered an exception to the rule.' Notwithstanding 

 this over-estimation, the Concord has proved a valuable acquisition, and has 

 served au important end in educating the taste of the masses to some degree 

 of appreciation for a class of fruits, to which, without it, they would have been 

 still, probably in a great degree, strangers. Possessed of extreme vigor and 

 hardmess, such as suffices to enable it to bear with comparative impunity, the 

 treatment meted out to it by a class of planters acting upon the idea, too com- 

 mon with the great mass of our people, that a vine stuck in a hole, and the 

 earth tramped about it, will thereafter be able to take care of itself, — this variety 

 has been able, in defiance of such treatment, to give results such as have, in 

 multitudes of cases, fairly won a degree of respect and appreciation, such as a 

 variety of better quality, but of It-ss hardy constitution, could scarcely have 

 secured. Coming out, as it did, almost contemporaneously with the Delaware, 



