1336 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



After this auspicious start, the last sixty years have been a dis- 

 appointment from a breeding standpoint. Concord and Catawba, 

 poor as they are, still remain among our most important commer- 

 cial varieties ; and few, if any, of the many Vinif era hybrids have 

 surpassed Rogers' first attempts. This has been largely because 

 the work has been done in a limited way, without plan, and with 

 very little knowledge of the varieties which have been used as 

 parents. The rediscovery of ITendelism and the light which has 

 been thrown upon the laws of inheritance since then have shown 

 breeders the necessity of a thorough knowledge of the funda- 

 mentals before any considerable success can be hoped for. To 

 gather such information requires years of painstaking effort and 

 the study of a large amount of material. 



RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS OF A QUARTER-CENTURY 



For twenty-five years the Experiment Station at Geneva has 

 been breeding grapes on an extensive scale. Much of the work 

 has been with our native sorts, but the principles developed with 

 these will apply equally well with the European grape. Recogniz- 

 ing the value of Yin if era blood in imparting high quality, it was 

 thought advisable to attempt growing varieties of this species on 

 the Station grounds at Geneva. In the hundred years which had 

 passed since extensive attempts to grow this grape had been given 

 up in favor of the native species, science had shown that the chief 

 causes of the early failures were from mildew, from a root-suck- 

 ing louse which destroyed the Yinifera roots but seldom injured 

 the native roots, and from inability to withstand the severity of 

 our winter climate without special protection. 



Early in 1911, cuttings of nearly one hundred Yinifera va- 

 rieties were secured and grafted upon native vines that were from 

 four to eight years old, thus avoiding trouble with the root louse. 

 These vines have been well sprayed, and every fall they have been 

 bent to the ground and covered with a few inches of dirt. With 

 these precautions many of the vines have given results equal to 

 or surpassing our native kinds. The w r ork of crossing the most 

 promising ones with our own best sorts began in 1912, and there 

 are now over five hundred and fifty direct hybrids in the Station's 

 vineyards and nurseries. It is, of course, too early to say what 



