SELECTION AND HYBRIDIZATION AMONG GRAPES. 



cleaux University, who is one of the most scientific and noted living grape 

 hybridizers, have noted this law in their writings. Persistency or non-variable- 

 ness of character in varieties under differing conditions of soil, climate, etc., 

 is very desirable, and it gets it undoubtedly from purity of specific blood, or 

 long continued selection and combinations of those varieties that best resist 

 the maladies contended against. Hence, on this account, it is better not to 

 combine more species in one variety than is necessary 'to include the points 

 sought. 



On the other hand, the greater the number of species, especially species 

 of great variability within themselves, such as Vinifera, Labrusca, Lincecumn, 

 /Estiz'cilis, Bicolor, embodied in a hybrid, the greater will be its unstableness 

 of character, tried under different conditions, so that each season being some- 

 what different from every other, one can never beforehand be certain of 

 what the variety will do. Still more will it vary in character in being put 

 into different soils and climates, and hence is certain to be very local in its 

 successes. 



To illustrate: Suppose that I should reason, like the quack doctor, that 

 if I combine a great many drugs into a "pill" or "bitters" that it (the pill) 

 would cure every disease, according to the theory that where one medicine 

 would miss, another in the pill would hit, and conclude that if I should unite 

 in one very complex hybrid all native American grapes that the complex 

 hybrid produced would be a universal success; entirely overlooking the fact 

 that the blood of extreme southern kinds would reduce the hardiness of 

 the northern species against cold, and vice versa ; that the species from the 

 high, arid regions, where cryptogamic diseases cannot exist, intermingled 

 with those in the lowland humid atmosphere would make hybrids that could 

 neither resist much drouth nor the fungus diseases. So, the hybrid embodying 

 all species, instead of being universally successful, would universally be a 

 failure, just as is the quack's stomach bitters. 



The true principle is to produce special varieties for special soils, cli- 

 mates and uses. But in every case we want those resistant, as far as possible, 

 to insect and fungus diseases. We want larger clusters and persistent, larger 

 berries for market and table. We want those for wine that will produce 

 abundance of must of special desirable qualities. How can such results be 

 best secured for each region? Clearly, only by combining two to four species, 

 if so many can be found, of the very best selections of each in the region 

 to be supplied. This gives room for each hybridizer to create a special list 

 of varieties for the peculiar climatic region in which he works. 



Here it may be acceptable to introduce some suggestive propositions. 



Suppose I should desire to develop a set of varieties best adapted to the 

 hot, dry climate of Southwestern Texas, to grow in the very limy upland 

 soils there, where the Phylloxera is natively abundant. Would I not select 

 the large clustered, fine quality, Phylloxera-leaf-folder-rot-resisting, deep- 

 rooting, lime-loving Berlandieri, and intermingle it with the best disease-re- 

 sisting, drouth-resisting, lime-loving, large-clustered, large-berried Viniferas? 

 Most certainly 1 would, as I have already done in a small way, with most prom- 

 ising results, for a widely extended region in the Southwest. To give still 



