FRUIT CULTURE. 143 



" melted with multiform flavor on the palate." From the few 

 specimens we have seen, we confess a favorable leaning towards 

 this variety, but a general cultivation will of course better test 

 its various qualities. 



Our cold and variable New England climate is considered 

 very unfavorable to. the proper culture of the grape. And it 

 certainly is a serious obstacle to the perfect ripening of our best 

 American varieties, while the foreign grape can be perfected 

 only under glass. Stern old winter, with his unwelcome linger- 

 ings, chilling, as he does, with his cold breath, tlie breezes of 

 May ; and the early frosts of September, which betoken his 

 returning footsteps, make up for us a year of which well two- 

 thirds are given over to the partial or complete reign of the 

 winter king. Such a climate is indeed unfavorable not only to 

 the highest perfection of the grape, but to general vegetation 

 also ; for many of our staple crops oftentimes suffer in 

 consequence. 



A climate and soil like ours cannot, of course, present the 

 best conditions for that high state of farming that will yield 

 great crops with little labor, and no painstaking. Such is not 

 the privilege of New England agriculture. But her peculiar 

 privilege is this : that these obstacles of coldness of climate and 

 sterility of soil, but furnish the occasion for the development 

 of the true New England glory, in the characteristics of her 

 people — industry, skill, genius, perseverance, ingenuity in over- 

 coming all natural impediments, powers of contrivance, and 

 skilfully conducted experiments, ultimating in invention and 

 discovery. These constitute the depths of New England's 

 resources. Do the frosts ruin the corn crop ? New England 

 enterprise does not succumb under the blow, but plants a kind 

 of earlier growth and ripening — for corn the farmer will have. 

 Does the grass winter kill ? or does the drouth cut it short? 

 The farmer does not give up the hay crop. He still labors on 

 for success, and studies for protection from adverse causes. 

 And so it is, that New England stands to-day foremost in that 

 skill and science that constitutes a successful agriculture. 

 And we are sure that when the energy, perseverance and skill 

 of our people are once enlisted in grape culture, all obstacles to 

 success will in due time be mastered, and our markets be filled 

 with the delicious clusters. 



