Il8 AMERICAN VINES 



a very long time in America. The vineyardists of the United 

 States tried to produce new forms from seedlings, in the 

 hope that they would be better adapted to climatic con- 

 ditions, which they thought was the only cause of failure 

 in vine culture. It was also with the same object that they 

 tried later on to create new varieties by hybridization. 

 Roger, Arnold, Underbill, Dr. Wylie, Allen, Rickett, Adlum, 

 Bull, Bush and Meissner, Hermann Jaeger, T. V. Munson, 

 etc., obtained by these means numerous forms, some of 

 which were introduced and multiplied in France ; these will 

 be studied later on. 



In France, the first trials of hybridization or metization 

 were carried out by Louis and Henri Bouschet ; they com- 

 menced their researches in 1828, and have given to the vine- 

 growers in southern districts cepages of great value (Petit- 

 Bouschet, Alicante-Bouschet, Grand noir de la Calmette, etc). 

 Louis and Henri Bouschet resorted to crossing, for the first 

 time, with a defined object. They desired to infuse, by 

 crossing, the intense colouration of the fruit of the Tinto to 

 the heavy bearers of the south of France, and they succeeded 

 in realizing the combinations aimed at. 



But hybridization has assumed great importance on account 

 of the phylloxera crisis, and the reconstruction with resistant 

 vines forced on vine-growers. This importance has been and 

 actually is the direct consequences of the results and failures 

 obtained in the cultivation of American vines. 



The first attempts at hybridization were made with the 

 object of creating, by crossing American vines with varieties 

 of V. Vinifera, fructiferous and resistant forms. On account 

 of the inherent qualities of affinity to grafting which those 

 hybrids were supposed to have, through their relation with 

 V. Vinifera, it was desired to utilize the most .vigorous and 

 resistant of them as graft-bearers. 



When the properties of adaptation of the American species 

 and varieties were better known, the crossing was so 

 directed as to unite the V. Vinifera to American vines 



ving special qualities for given soils, and, therefore, to create 

 resistant graft-bearers, with perfect affinity to grafting and 

 pre-determined adaptation to certain soils. 



On account of the difficulty of obtaining resistance to 

 phylloxera by the combinations of European and American 

 vines, the new lines followed, with reason, the creation of 

 hybrids (Americo- American) between resistant vines en- 



