328 
Notwithstanding these encouraging results it is perhaps well to keep in view 
hat thefsubject is still in its infancy, and in a great measure only experimental, 
and if it is now desired to establish permanent excellence upon which the fu- 
ture value of this interest must ultimately depend, as a source of national in- 
dustry and wealth, the necessity and importance of careful and systematic 
observations in everything relating to the subject is forcibly apparent, so that 
if errors exist they may at once be corrected, and their effects arrested before 
they have become typical, or injurious to the character of the products of this 
interest. 
In the Old World, where there is only one species of the grape-vine, the va- 
rieties are very numerous and vary very considerably in their qualities as to 
hardiness, productiveness,, size, flavor, &c. A distinction is also maintained 
between those varieties most suitable for table use and those valued for the 
production of wines. In America there are several species, preserving well- 
marked distinctions both in fruit and foliage, as also, what is of much importance 
in their practical culture, peculiarities in their health, and freedom from dis- 
eases, as well as adaptability to certain climates and localities, qualities of great 
significance, but which have been almost if not entirely overlooked by the 
majority of those engaged in their culture. 
, The Catawba, one of the oldest cultivated and still one of the best varieties 
of the Fox family, ( Vitis Labrusca,) has been the principal wine grape of the 
Atlantic States.* When it reaches thorough maturity it is pronounced a very 
good wine grape, but it is worthy of investigation whether the fruit ripens 
thoroughly in all localities where it is cultivated as a wine-producing grape. 
Our investigations tend to the belief that it does not develop its true wine char- 
acteristics in many localities where it is grown for this purpose, although it may 
reach a condition of maturity sufficient for a passable table fruit. Most of the 
varieties of this class require a long and favorable season to soften and break 
down the acid pulp of which they are largely composed ; and when we take 
into consideration the tendency to disease, both in the foliage and fruit of this 
species, which still further retards growth, or hastens apparent ripening, we 
have ample reasons for the great variety of opinions constantly disseminated as 
to the value of these varieties as wine grapes, and the assumed necessity of 
attempting to add, by artificial means, what nature has legitimately failed to 
produce. 
A class of grapes that will mature under a lower degree of maximum summer 
temperature than the above is represented by the Clinton, a variety of the 
species Vitis Cordzfolia, (Gray.) ‘This species is comparatively free from disease, 
and the varieties possess other merits which would seem to point them out as 
worthy attention for wine grapes. It may be that none of the varieties yet 
produced from this family have all the requisites required, but so far as may be 
indicated by the percentage of sugar in the juice, the Clinton will, when grown 
under the same conditions of climate and soil, north of the parallel of 40° north 
latitude, show a heavier must, as indicated by the saccharometer test, than the 
juice of the Catawba, and it has no hard pulp, but it possesses too much acid for 
a popular wine, although good wines are recorded as having been produced from 
this variety. 
The improvement of this species is specially worthy of attention by northern 
grape growers. 
There is every reason to expect the origination of better varieties from seed 
than any yet in cultivation, and, looking to the hardiness and uniform health of 
the family, their adaptability to mature in high latitudes, and promise for wines, 
we must conclude that they have been signally overlooked. 
*In these remarks on wine grapes it is to be understood that we refer to the plant as 
adapted to climates east of the Rocky mountains. On the western coast the wine grapes of 
Asia are principally planted. 
