66 FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



So far as I can learn, the varieties of Vulpina root with difficulty 

 from cuttings. 



As an evidence that our grapes are beginning to be appreciated 

 in Europe, I may be pardoned for quoting the following from one of 

 M. Laliman's letters : " The wines which I obtain from certain Ameri- 

 can varieties age very rapidly, and I may tell you that the Jacquez, 

 [I do not know this variety, unless it be a synonym of the Ohio], the 

 Lenoir, the Clinton and the Long, [known to us as the Cunningham], 

 mixed together, give me a wine much superior to those I get from our 

 French varieties. The Delaware, also, mixed with the Taylor, makes 

 a very agreeable wine." 



In an article written by him last April,* he further says : " Cer- 

 tain vines of the Cordifolio [Iiiparia] species make a very good 

 wine ; and certain hybrids, as well as some varieties of y^stivalis, pro- 

 duce wines so like our own that we shall find it to our advantage to 

 cultivate them, not only from an alcoholic stand-point, but for an 

 abundance, color and taste, which will astonish those who are ac- 

 quainted with the Lahrusca only. * * * The Americans 

 have made such rapid strides in horticulture of late that, we repeat, 

 they have entirely changed the character of their vineyards. Certain 

 grape-growers have succeeded, by hybridization>in so improving their 

 wild vines that their grapes to-day equal our best products of the 

 kind." 



This speaks well for American vines, which our fastidious trans- 

 atlantic friends deemed, not long since, unfit for cultivated tastes. 

 But whether these vines be there appreciated for their fruit or not, 

 they will prove valuable as graft-stocks. Mr. DeWyl has the Goethe, 

 Salem and Rogers No. 12 grafted (under ground) on to Taylor roots, 

 and, although a few galls are found upon the leaves, the grafts are 

 doing well. By growing such Hungarian vines as Tokay, Foment and 

 Scegety on Concord roots, and protecting them in winter, he has also 

 succeeded in making them thrive and bear. Indeed, the benefits of 

 grafting the more susceptible varieties on to the roots of those which 

 best resist the Phylloxera, must be patent to all ; and in thus grafting 

 we have one of the few practical methods, so far known, of thwarting 

 the enemy. 



It is to be regretted that more caution is not taken by those who 

 write upon the subject of the Phylloxera. In the monthly report 

 from the Department of Agriculture for February, 1872, it is stated 

 that varieties of Lahrusca are freest from attacks of the louse ; where- 

 as Labrusca, as a species, suffers most. Such careless statements 

 mislead, and may account for the fact that the varieties imported by 

 the French minister have been mostly of this species. Some iew of 

 the Lahrusoas eftectually resist the louse here, and there is every 



* Rcponse a la Soc. Linneenne. 



