folia), or the Post-Oak Grape (V. Lincecumii) , we fall in love with nature for teaching us what 

 wonderful development, the blind, haphazard selection by natural circumstances, aided doubt- 

 lessly by birds and other animals eating the best and carrying the seeds into new regions to start 

 new and better families, have produced during several million years, since the true grapes were 

 evolved out of a wild vine, with probably inferior fruit to the Ampelopsis or Sumach. But when 

 we compare the best wild grapes ever found with a Malaga, Cornichon, Muscat, Black Hamburg, 

 and know that the keen yet unsystematic selection of man for only a few thousand years has 

 done this, and when such men as E. S. Rogers have taught us that by hybridization we can, at 

 a single bound, transplant these fine fruits, almost perfect, into our vigorous, healthy natives, we 

 enjoy an encouragement unknown to the ancient, slow-plodding world. Moreover, our native 

 species excel in many points the Old World grapes. Some have rare delicious flavors unknown 

 in the Vinifera varieties, others great size of cluster, others very large berries, others small and 

 few seeds, nearly all great vigor and resistance to disease, adaptability to a most variable climate^ 

 and our experience clearly shows that all the species can be intermingled at will of the intelligent 

 hybridizer. The lists of American varieties given in this book with their parentage are ample 

 proof that the process of selection and hybridization can produce almost any desired character 

 within a comparatively short time. 



We are assured by all these facts that the field of development is illimitable and full of grand 

 prospects and encouragement. 



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