"GRAPE CULTURE" 



Mr. Abel F. Stevens, Wellesley. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen, I find myself this after- 

 noon very hoarse. I am before you with a few things written 

 out on the practical side, the detail of the subject. I find 

 that I am a good deal like the two darkies down on the 

 Mississippi River that had the habit of going to sleep in the 

 middle of the day and basking in the sunshine in flat boats 

 on the river, tying up there to a little twig by the side. A 

 bright little pickaninny cut the string and pushed it out into 

 the stream and it went quite a way down the river, when it 

 struck a snag and woke up Sam. Sam looked up and said, 

 ^'We ain't here. Bill, Bill, wake up here, quick; we ain't 

 here." Bill looked up and says, "No, we are five miles from 

 here." So my voice is about five miles from here. 



If the noble apple is the "king" of fruits, the delicious 

 grape is certainly the "queen." It is generally conceded 

 that "Adam's fall" was caused by an apple, but my own ob- 

 servation has been that many a man can trace his own down- 

 fall to a "peach !" 



HISTORY 



The antiquity of the grape reaches back to the Creation, 

 for we find that the grape is mentioned 215 times from Gen- 

 esis to Revelations, so it dates back to the "Garden of Eden" 

 and has been cultivated by man for 6000 years. The history 

 of grape growing in United States is most clearly related by 

 Professor Bailey in "The Evolution of Our Native Fruits." 

 This book is far more fascinating than a novel and far better 

 for you, brother fruit growers to read, than any novel which 

 is only poor fiction. Bailey's book deals in sterling facts 

 Previous to 1830 many attempted to grow the European wine 

 grape (Vites Vinifera) but after many failures attention was 

 directed to our native varieties, that grew so luxuriantly in 

 many states. 



