86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



plants hardy which can be made to live in the open air, though 

 protected in winter by earth or other covering. Nurserymen, 

 who naturally desire to possess and disseminate all the new 

 grapes, annually offer for sale new varieties as hardy, without 

 the possibility of proving it by actual experiment, (having 

 probably received them as such,) which, upon trial, prove to be 

 tender unless protected. We do not blame them ; they labor 

 in their vocation, and are looked to for all new things as soon 

 as they are announced. We can only take the precaution to 

 avoid planting, extensively, any grape which has not proved to 

 be hardy under all ordinary circumstances. 



Your committee assume that no grape is hardy, in the proper 

 sense of that term, unless it will survive the winter without 

 protection ; and that no grape is worth the growing unless it is 

 hardy in this particular. The high price of labor, and the 

 necessities of harvesting, and of preparation for the winter, 

 incident to our short seasons, would make it inexpedient for 

 the majority of our farmers to cultivate any grape which 

 requires protection. 



It follows, therefore, that grape culture, to be successful, and 

 in any sense universal, requires a grape possessing absolute 

 immunity from all the usual vicissitudes of our climate ; it 

 should also be early, prolific, large, handsome and good. It 

 should be a strong grower, for weak growing vines require a 

 rich soil and abundant feeding, which adds much to the expense 

 of cultivation, while a strong growing vine will give good crops 

 on any good corn land, without much expense in feeding. It 

 should be prolific, that the cultivator may get an abundant 

 return for his labor ; it should be large and handsome, that it 

 may sell well in the market; it should ripen early, in order to 

 escape our early autumnal frosts ; and it should be, with these 

 preliminaries, of as good quality as possible. 



In regard to quality, it is yet too soon to expect from our 

 native stock, grapes equal to those of European origin, per- 

 fected, as they are, by centuries of skilful cultivation ; but such 

 success has already been achieved as to encourage us in the 

 belief that we shall, at no distant day, obtain grapes equal in 

 quality to the foreign grape, which will bo perfectly at home in 

 our less favorable climate and soil. Let us confine our efforts 

 to the raising of seedlings from our native stock, if wo hope for 



