102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



her normal condition, and resents the interference of man. Her 

 purpose is merely the continuation of the species, and she gives 

 vigor and adaptation to that end. 



" The horticulturist desires the fruit, and not the seed. His 

 efforts are directed to the amelioration of the harsh flavor ; to 

 softening the pulp ; to making, in short, the fruit more edible. 

 He accomplishes this by putting the seeds into a soil rich with 

 stimulating composts, abounding with the particular food which 

 is best adapted to his purpose. The new conditions change the 

 character of the plant. Instead of meadow or pasture, where 

 the parent vine grew with vigor, indeed, but with the coarse 

 habit incident to wild nature, the new-born seedling revels in 

 the abundant and congenial food prepared for it, and stimulated 

 by the nature of its feeding, shows a change of habit more or 

 less marked. This is the sign of improvement ; of the departure 

 from the native type, and the token of success to the cultivator. 

 In the seed-bed will be found vines having short-jointed wood, 

 perhaps smooth and solid, and with prominent buds. Tiiese 

 vines deserve his special care ; from them he will obtain vines 

 with still more marked change of habit, and the greater the 

 divergence from the original type, the more certain will be his 

 success. 



" Most of the seedlings, if you begin with the wild grape, will 

 prove to be barren or worthless in the first generation. The 

 barren grapes may be distinguished, for the most part, by their 

 great luxuriance of growth, and in the first year the seed-bed 

 will be filled with these rampant, and, to the novice, promising 

 vines. 



" My experience leads me to reject these strong vines of the 

 first year, or at least to plant them in a quarter by themselves, 

 as possibly I might get a good grape out of them, and if such 

 should be tlie case, the strong growth would be desirable. 



" I have spoken of these seedlings of the first year because the 

 seeds continue to come up for two, three and even four years in 

 succession, and my best grapes come from these later seedlings. 



" There seems to be much probability in the tlieory propounded 

 long ago, that one or more seeds of every fruit is strongly 

 impressed with the peculiar type of the species to which it 

 belongs, and will bring its like with precision, as happens with 

 long-established breeds of cattle. How far the seeds of grapes 



