THE DOMESTICATION OF THE GRAPE 9 



has many pure-bred or hybrid offspring which more or less 

 resemble it. 



The second commercial grape of importance in American 

 viticulture is Concord, which came from the seed of a wild 

 grape planted in the fall of 1843 by Ephraim W. Bull, Concord, 

 Massachusetts. The new variety was disseminated in the 

 spring of 1854, and from the time of its introduction the spread 

 of its culture was phenomenal. By 1860 it was the leading 

 grape in America and it so remains. Concord furnishes, with 

 the varieties that have sprung from it, seventy-five per cent of 

 tjie grapes grown in eastern America. The characters which 

 distinguish the vine are : Adaptability to various soils, fruit- 

 fulness, hardiness and resistance to diseases and insects. The 

 fruits are distinguished by certainty of maturity, attractive 

 appearance, good but not high flavor, and by the fact that 

 they may be produced so cheaply that no other grape can com- 

 pete with this variety in the markets. Concord is, as Horace 

 Greeley well denominated it in awarding the Greeley prize 

 for the best American grape, "the grape for the millions." 



The histories of these two grapes are typical of those of five 

 hundred or more other Labruscas. Out of a prodigious num- 

 ber of native seedlings, an occasional one is found greatly to 

 excel its fellows and is brought under cultivation. 



The RotundifoUa or Muscadine grapes. 



Long before the northern Labruscas had attained prominence 

 in the vineyards of the North, a grape had been domesticated 

 partially in the South. It is Vitis rotundifolia (Fig. 3), a species 

 which runs riot from the Potomac to the Gulf, thriving in many 

 diverse soils, but growing only in the southern climate and 

 preferring the seacoast. Rotundifolia grapes have been culti- 

 vated somewhat for fruit or ornament from the earliest colonial 

 times. It is certain that wine was made from this species by 

 the English settlers at Jamestown. Vines of it are now to be 



