382 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



THE GRAPE INDUSTRY IN MASSACHU- 

 SETTS. 



From Bulletin No. 4, Crop Report for August, 1890. 



The vine is indigenous in this country, and was found in 

 profusion by the Northmen in their discoveries on this con- 

 tinent more than eight hundred years ago, inducing them to 

 name the country ' ' Vin-land dat gode " (the good wine- 

 land). 



Our native varieties, called "fox grapes," characterized 

 by their hard pulp, thick skins and pungent aromatic flavor, 

 are found in every kind of soil and situation. "Here are 

 grapes," wrote Edward Winslow in 1621, " white and red, 

 and very sweet and strong also." 



Plants and seeds of foreign varieties were brought to this 

 country by colonists during the first fifty years after its set- 

 tlement, but no considerable attention seems to have been 

 given to their propagation until after the close of the Rev- 

 olutionary War, when efforts began to be more especially 

 directed to the cultivation of various kinds of fruit. Anions; 

 these, though not the most prominent, was the grape. 



Experience soon showed that these foreign varieties would 

 not withstand the severity of our New England winters 

 without protection ; and that our short and variable summers 

 and early autumnal frosts presented an insurmountable barrier 

 to their successful cultivation except under glass. 



These efforts in relation to grapes of foreign origin having 

 failed, the attention of the fruit grower was wisely directed 

 to the examination of our more hardy native varieties. . By 

 a careful selection of the most promising for propagation, 

 and by reproduction, several new varieties were obtained, of 

 acknowledged excellence and well adapted to our New 

 England climate. Prominent among the varieties obtained 

 from the native grape were the Isabella and Catawba, excel- 

 lent grapes where the climate permitted them to ripen, but 



