RESISTANT VINES) THEIR SELECTION, ADAPTATION, ETC. 19 



yard was planted to Riparias. After several years it was found that 

 they seemed to be total failures. As the soil was a typical Riparia soil, 

 and the variety used was the very best, much interest was aroused. 

 After consultation, it was decided to dig out the entire vineyard, give it 

 a very deep plowing, and replant it with cuttings from the same mother- 

 vines that had supplied the cuttings for the original plantation. This was 

 done, and to-day there is not a finer vineyard in the country. Experi- 

 ence has shown that all American resistants require deep plowing at first, 

 though some do not require quite as deep preparation as others. The 

 Riparias are the most exacting in this respect. It is a safe rule to follow, 

 that the drier and poorer the soil the greater care should be taken to prepare 

 it for the reception of American resistant vines. 



Hybrids and Direct Producers. Thus far only the pure species, 

 unmixed, have been spoken of, but there are many vines of more or less 

 value that are not pure species, but have been produced, artificially 

 or accidentally, by cross fertilization, or by mixing the pollen of the 

 flowers of two or more species; so that the resulting vine has some of 

 the characteristics of each of the parent vines. The Americans have 

 made the greatest progress in the hybridization of their vines; owing to 

 the fact that in the East the Vitis Vinifera cannot be grown, they were 

 forced to improve the wild vines, so as to have table and other grapes 

 for their own use. Lately the French have taken up the hybridization 

 of vines, and made remarkable progress. The great object at present is 

 to obtain a vine that, while resisting the phylloxera, the two mildews, 

 the black rot, etc. (all of which diseases are natives of America, and 

 which the American vines resist more or less well), will give without 

 grafting a grape that has size, and the quantity and quality of the Vitis 

 Vinifera. The American grapes have all more or less of a peculiar charac- 

 teristic musky flavor (generally called "foxy taste"), that, while more 

 or less agreeable for table-grapes, becomes unpalatable when fermenta- 

 tion has vinified the must. What is wanted is a vine that will have all 

 the qualities of the American vine as regards the growth, but all of the 

 qualities of the European vine as regards the quantity and excellence of 

 the crop. Thus far the goal has not been reached; but in some cases 

 there 'have been approaches to it. At times the "direct producer" (a 

 vine possessing the resisting power in its roots and free from unpleasant 

 flavors) has been favorably spoken of, and in some cases many thou- 

 sands of acres were planted with them, but extended trial proved that 

 they were not to be compared with the Vinifera grafted on a resistant 

 stock. As an example of this may be cited the Lenoir, or "Jacquez " as 

 it is known in Europe. At one time it was extensively planted as a 

 direct producer, but it was found that the crops were unprofitable, on 

 account of small quantity and the inferior quality of the wine; so it was 

 relegated to the place of a grafting stock. It was found, however, that 

 as a stock it could not compare with the selected " standards," Riparia 

 and Rupestris, because after grafting it lost much of the vigor that made 

 it remarkable when ungrafted; besides which it is more difficult to prop- 

 agate from cuttings. The same can be said of most of the hybrids of 

 Vinifera with American vines. They seem to lose to a great extent 

 their vigor when grafted, and even when ungrafted they do not possess 

 the same degree of resistance to the phylloxera as the mother-vine from 

 which the resisting qualities were derived; and it is seldom that they 



