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The Hoiiicidtarid and Journal 



A Remarkable Collection of 

 New Hybrid G-rapes. 



BY HENKY T. WILLIAMS. 



IT was the writer's fortune this fall to ex- 

 amine a collection of new hybrid grapes, of 

 such remarkable characteristics and superior 

 excellence, that one may be justified in calling 

 it the choicest now extant in America. 



Ten years since, Mr. James H. Ricketts, of 

 Newburgh, N. Y., owning a little cottage and 

 garden on the hillside in the city, with prac- 

 tical love of horticulture, in the leisure mo- 

 ments spared from his business occupation, 

 began the study and experiment of hybridiz- 

 ing grapes, both native with foreign, and foreign 

 with each' other, and testing their seedlings in 

 the open air. If there were any place more un- 

 favorable for such a test, we have never seen it. 

 In the summer time with exposure to intense 

 heat ; in the winter to severe cold, with ground 

 poor, and sloping to the northeast, it seemed as 

 if any vine that succeeded here, ought, in all 

 fairness, to do well in the average climate of 

 the United States. His experiments have 

 yearly grown in interest, and the fame of some 

 of his successes have already been known to 

 some of the most observant horticulturists ; 

 still it has remained to the trials of the present 

 fiill, to give a reliable verdict. His methods 

 of hybridizing are, of course, known only to 

 himself, but all kinds of experiments have been 

 tried, the pollen sometimes being kept till two 

 or three weeks old, and then applied. Again, 

 the caps have been taken off four days in ad- 

 vance of the time usually taken by nature. 

 One other person in Canada, pursuing his trials, 

 studies and experiments in almost the same 

 track, has yet made a complete failure in every 

 case, and where the secret of Mr. Ricketts' 

 success can be, doth not yet appear. It is 

 sufficient only to judge of the results as we 

 now find them. Mr. Ricketts' collection may 

 be divided into three classes : 1. Black grapes. 

 2. White grapes. 3. Wine grapes. There 

 are now seventy-five seedlings in all growing 



in his garden, and of them all, we may truth- 

 fully say, not one is an inferior variety. A 

 large portion of these vines are but two years 

 old, some three to four, while but few are 

 older. Still, the sorts which exhibit most 

 marked excellence, are the older varieties, 

 and the newer ones develop traits more valu- 

 able with each year of increasing age. About 

 one-quarter of the collection may be classed 

 fully as hardy as the Concord, and the rest not 

 yet fully determined, although they have all 

 been largely exposed to the winter for the past 

 two years, without suffering injury. 



The Secretary is a large, beautiful black 

 grape, which has already become known. It 

 originated with Mr. Ricketts in 1867. The 

 original vine fruited the next year after the 

 seed was planted. It is a seedling from the 

 Clinton and Muscat Hamburgh. A large vine 

 is trained upon a trellis near Mr. Ricketts' 

 house, and some of the bunches were nearly 

 a foot long, and well shouldered, the flavor is 

 excellent, sweet, vinous, bunch hangs well, 

 berry firm ; good market sort. 



It is a little curious to note here the follow- 

 ing incident : Mr. Ricketts taking one day to 

 Charles Downing seven of his seedlings, and 

 requesting an opinion, was surprised and de- 

 lighted to find him class five of them as better 

 in flavor than the Muscat Hamburgh itself. 

 An opinion from so high a source gives decided 

 character to the value of the collection. 



The finest white grape of the collection is 

 No. 93 J, Imperial, a white seedling from 

 lona and Sarbelle Muscat. The berry is very 

 large, of a fine white color, with considerable 

 bloom ; bunch quite large, regular, with slight 

 shoulder ; no pulp, no seeds, splendid flavor, 

 with traces of the lona-Muscat aroma. Vine 

 exceedingly vigorous grower ; ripens about 

 time of the Isabella ; oldest plant is now foiy 

 years. Mr. Ricketts has given me the pleas- 

 ure of bestowing upon it a becoming name, 

 which in honor of its superior merit, I now 

 name " The Imperial," for it seems thus far 

 to be the best white out-door grape yet origi- 

 nated. Perhaps its most valuable feature is 

 its hardiness ; standing the winter well, when 

 Concord was killed. 



