226 GARDENING WITH BRAINS * 



mere sideshow. 1 If you get a good basket of 

 Concords they are almost sure to be some other 

 dark kind stupidly offered under that name. I 

 remember the time when Concords seemed 

 good to eat. Now there is still a sweet juice 

 right under the skin, but the pulp is rubbery and 

 sour as a wild crab apple. Epicures would 

 gladly pay fancy prices for the Worden, a seed- 

 ling of the Concord and a great improvement on 

 it. It is sweet before it becomes quite ripe, 

 which is a great advantage in these days when 

 fruit is seldom tree or vine ripened, as it must 

 be to be at its best. Other grapes of the Concord 

 type, but much better, are Campbell Early, 

 Stark Eclipse, and Moore Early. 



The best Eastern grapes to be found in the 

 markets are the Niagaras, which when good are 

 very good, and the Delawares "small, but, oh 

 my!" They are usually rather scarce, and late 

 in the autumn the fruit sellers try to make you 

 buy if they think you don't know much the 

 Catawbas, which resemble them, but are not so 

 luscious. Of the California grapes offered, the 

 best by far are the Muscatels. Unfortunately, 

 they do not keep well and are therefore very 



1 William Harper Dean states, in the Country Gentleman, that 

 "in New York, Michigan, and Ohio there are some ninety thousand 

 acres in vineyards, 90 per cent of which are devoted to Concords." 

 Speaking of the present method of selling grapes, the manager of 

 one company said: "It puts a premium on poor stuff and dis- 

 courages the man who spends time and money to put quality into 

 his product." That's why it takes ten to twenty years to introduce 

 Burbank's improved varieties. 



