1891.] 



PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 



383 



too late for our New England climate, except in the most 

 sheltered situations, and uncertain even there. 



It was not until these varieties appeared that our people 

 took much interest in. the cultivation of this fruit, and even 

 then but here and there a vine could be found on our northern 

 farms. Later the Diana was added to the list, and others of 

 lesser note ; but the honor of giving a grape to the country 

 that was to be extensively cultivated and highly prized from 

 the extreme East to the extreme West, was reserved for one 

 of our own citizens ; and when Mr. Bull sent out his Concord 

 grape, he conferred a great boon upon the country. This 

 variety was a seedling from a seedling of the wild grape, 

 Vitis Labrusca. 



In 1862, according to John B. Moore, there were five 

 vineyards in Middlesex County, from one-half to one acre 

 each; viz., one in Acton, one in Dracut, and three in Con- 

 cord. Two of these vineyards had been planted only one 

 year, and the other three were bearing fruit. 



Said Mr. E. W. Bull in 1865, "The cultivation of the 

 grape in the open air is to-day an assured fact. More than 

 thirty acres are planted in Middlesex County alone, not count- 

 ing; the small holdings ; " and in 1866 the same gentleman 

 said that more than one hundred acres of grapes were grown 

 in Massachusetts, and that he assumed that the growing of 

 the grape in the open air was demonstrated, and that the 

 vine} 7 ard was established in Massachusetts. 



The following table will illustrate the growth of the grape 

 industry in Massachusetts during the twenty years from 

 1865 to 1885, inclusive : — 



* Premium, 1.57. 



t Premium, 1.12. 



