THE SCUPPERNONG 85 



and those who become accustomed to it are fond of its 

 sweet and perfumed berries. Sidney Weller, of Brink- 

 leyville, North Carolina, extolled the Scuppernong to the 

 Commissioner of Patents in 1853, as the "grape of 

 grapes" for the South. At the State Fair, at Raleigh, 

 he had " exhibited Scuppernoug grapes four inches in 

 circumference, unparalleled in size; and no mean judges 

 of wine, from different parts of the country, pronounced 

 my 'Scuppernong hock' the best of wine." Mr. Wel- 

 ler's plantation, which appears to have been composed 

 of Scuppernongs, is described as follows: "The re- 

 sult of my vineyard enterprise and industry therein, 

 is about a dozen acres of flourishing vines, mostly on 

 scaffolding, or as canopies, covering continuously with 

 branches (and when in bearing, with leaves and fruit) 

 overhead, from 8 to 10 feet high, and nothing is seen 

 between these canopies and the ground but main stems 

 of the vines, and the posts or rock pillars to support 

 the frame -work above. My annual yield of wine has 

 been as high as 60 barrels ; besides entertaining hun- 

 dreds of visitors at 25 cents each entrance, and 50 

 cents per gallon for select grapes gathered to carry 

 away. My vineyard is the largest, I learn, in the 

 South, and I am encouraged to enlarge it every year." 



Dr. Peter Wylie, of North Carolina, is said to have 

 succeeded in securing hybrids of the Scuppernong with 

 other species, but they were lost. Of late years, T. V. 

 Munson has taken up the problem, and has several 

 hybrids between this species and the Herbemont type. 

 In 1868, J. Van Buren printed a small book upon "The 

 Scuppernong Grape," at Memphis. 



In all this various history, we have seen that four 

 species of grapes have been chiefly concerned in the 



