ANNUAL MEETING AT NEVADA. 291 



THE AMERICAN GRAPE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



BY G. E. MEISSNER, BUSHBURG, MO. 



Editor Rural World: 



The devastation ot the vineyards of Southern France by the Phyl- 

 loxera, and the subsequent reconstruction of these vineyards by means 

 of resistant American grape roots, are facts which are probably well 

 known to most of your readers, but it may interest them to know that 

 France is not the only foreign country where American grapevines 

 flourish, and where they are becoming of growing importance. 



While nearly all European countries, outside of France, are still 

 .closed to the introduction of either rooted vines or cuttings, they do 

 not bar our seeds, and in this form the American vine has been intro- 

 duced and has furnished millions of phylloxera-resisting grafting stocks 

 to the grape-growers of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, in 

 short all the South European nations, and to their provinces on the 

 Mediteranean shores of Africa. But not content with crossing the 

 Atlantic, the American vine reaches across the Pacific, and is cultivated 

 in Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Pacific ocean. 'PLven 

 South America is drawing upon the United States for grapes, and our 

 American vines are cultivated on the foot-hills of the Andes in Chili and 

 Peru, as well as in Brazil and the Argentine Confederation. In some of 

 these countries they are planted quite extensively, and there are some 

 large vineyards of Isabella and Catawba. Of late years there has been 

 quite a demand from South America for our best American wine grapes 

 especially for the varieties belonging to the ^stivalis class, such as 

 Cynthiana, Norton's Virginia, Herbemont, Cunningham, etc., which 

 seem to be peculiarly well adapted to those countries. As a proof of 

 this, I might mention that the orders, which our house has received 

 this season from South America, (from governments as well as from 

 private parties), cover nearly 15,000 vines of the above named kinds, 

 besides some scattering of other of our choice varieties. 



The knowledge of the fact how our American grapes are apprecia- 

 ted abroad, should be an encouragement to our own grape growers, as it 



