EUROPEAN GRAPES IN EASTERN AMERICA 185 



is this true of the diseases of the vine. The reports of the old 

 experimenters were much the same, "a sickness takes hold of 

 the vines and they die." What the sickness was and whether 

 there were preventatives or remedies, no one knew a hundred 

 years ago. But in the last half century we have learned much 

 about the ills of grapes and now know preventatives or remedies 

 for most of them. ^Ye know also that the early vine-growers 

 failed, in part at least, because they followed empirical Euro- 

 pean practices. Is it not possible that with the new knowledge 

 we can now grow European grapes in eastern America? The 

 New York Agricultural Experiment Station has put this ques- 

 tion to test, with results indicating that European grapes may 

 now be grown successfully in eastern America. The following 

 is an account of the work with this fruit at the New York 

 Station. 



European Grapes at the New York Experiment Station ^ 



In the spring of 1911, the Station obtained cuttings of 101 

 varieties of European grapes from the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture and the University of California. The 

 cuttings obtained were grafted on the roots of a heterogeneous 

 collection of seedlings, five years set, representing a half dozen 

 species of Vitis. These stocks had little to recommend them 

 except that all were vigorous, well established and all were more 

 immune to phylloxera than the Old World varieties. From 

 four to six grafts of each of the hundred varieties were made 

 and a stand of 380 vines resulted, the percentage of loss being 

 exceedingly small. The success in grafting was probably due 

 to the method used, the value of which had been proved in 

 previous work on the vStation grounds. The method of graft- 

 ing and details of care follow : 



' The following account is founded on work carried on by tlie author 

 at the N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta., accounts of which have been given before 

 several horticultural societies in 1916, 1917 and 1918. 



