A VINEYARD OF MUSCADINE GRAPES 



The ground crop is crimson clover. Sometimes sheep are pastured on it, which makes three- 

 story agriculture. The Muscadine grape is a favorite in the southeastern United States 

 where it is native, but offers much room for improvement. Unlike the ordinary grape the 

 Muscadine has been trained high on overhead trellises. (Fig. 10.) 



S. Ability to produce profitable crops 

 for 100 or more years. 



With such creditable characters, 

 though still a practically untamed 

 branch of the grape family, the Musca- 

 dines seemed to offer unusual oppor- 

 tunity for improvement. On the other 

 hand, there were certain difficulties in 

 the way of improvement which the De- 

 [)artment recognized from the beginning. 

 For instance, there was not a single 

 known self-fertile variety among the 

 Muscadines, thus necessitating the use 

 of a wild male vine of unknown fruit 

 character in every cross. The only 

 available female varieties were those 

 which had been brought under cultiva- 

 tion and more or less disseminated by 

 persons finding them in the woods and 

 recognizing them as superior to the 



410 



average wild grape. Nothing was known 

 about the i)arentage of these varieties 

 and as their distribution had been more 

 or less limited to the vicinit>" in which 

 they originated their real varietal value 

 had not been established. There were 

 no improved male vines and their need 

 had not been realized, as the importance 

 of providing cross-pollination facilities 

 was unknown. 



vSuch were the conditions when the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture under- 

 took to improve the Muscadine grape 

 in those ways in which improvement 

 seemed desirable and ])ossiblc. Ap- 

 parently these were : 



1. Production of improved male vines. 



2. Production of self-fertile varieties. 



3. (Greater productiveness. 



4. Increased size of fmit cluster. 



