X:^VII.] ROGERS AND RICKETTS. 433 



Society in 1854. His grape, which is known as 

 Allen's Hybrid, was a cross between Isabella and 

 the foreign Golden Chasselas. About this time, also, 

 E. S. Rogers, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, was making 

 experiments in the same direction, and his thirteen 

 grapes have gained a wide reputation. These grapes 

 are crosses between the wild Labrusca of New England 

 and selected varieties of the European grape. They 

 all combine excellence of flavor with large size and 

 attractive appearance, but none of them has become 

 a popular market grape, because some weakness is 

 present in each one. The introduction of the foreign 

 or Vitis vinifera blood, therefore, was not successful 

 in the production of profitable varieties. 



But the attempt to add vinifera virtues to Ameri- 

 can grapes did not end with the phenomenal labors 

 of Rogers. J. H. Ricketts, a resident of Newburgh, 

 New York, soon took up the work, following largely 

 the lines of his predecessor, except that his American 

 parents were taken from among our best named va- 

 rities, as Concord, Delaware, lona and Clinton. 

 Twenty -eight of Ricketts' have been named ; of these 

 twenty -seven possess American blood, the Welcome 

 being wholly European. These varieties, as a whole, 

 are of remarkably high quality, and it is not too 

 much to say that they constitute the most marked 

 example of the refinement of American grapes. Every 

 variety, like those of Rogers, affords an instructive 

 lesson in the blending of parentages, but like Rogers', 

 too, they are not market grapes. With the high 

 quality of vinifera we have, also, its weaknesses and 

 disadvantages, and most of Ricketts' remarkable vari- 

 eties are already lost to cultivation. Adelaide, El Do- 

 28 SUR. 



