GRAPE-BREEDING 



277 



and productiveness; and, altliou<j:h they lack the qualities 

 which make good table-.<j:rapes, they are among the best for 

 wine-making. Ronnnel has had many followers in hybridiz- 

 ing native species, chief of whom 

 was the late T. V. ^lunson, Fig. 

 50, Denison, Texas, who literally 

 made every combination of 

 grapes possible, grew thousands 

 of seedlings and produced many 

 valuable varieties. 



Fig. 50. T. V. Munson. 



Improvement by selection. 



Selection, continued through 

 successive generations, so im- 

 portant in the improvement of 

 field and garden plants, has 

 played but small part in the 

 domestication of the grape. The 

 period between planting and 

 fruiting is so long that progress would be slow indeed were this 

 method relied on. ^Moreover, selection, as a method in breed- 

 ing, is possible only when plants are bred pure, and it is the 

 experience of grape-breeders that in pure breeding this fruit 

 loses in vigor and productiveness and that the variations are 

 exceedingly slight and unstable. Many pure-bred grapes have 

 been raised on the grounds of the New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station under the eyes of the writer, of which 

 very few have surpassed the parent or have shown promise 

 for the practice of selection. 



New varieties from sports. 



Bud-sports or mutations now and then arise in grapes. But 

 not more than two or three of the 2000 varieties now under 

 cultivation are suspected of having arisen in this way. It is 



