32 AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING 



different results, in vineyards closely adjoining, that I 

 have become reluctant to recommend, even to my nearest 

 neighbor, what he should plant. 



In the East and North the demand is still for some- 

 thing earlier than we yet have, while here in the West we 

 do not desire the early grapes so much, at least, not for 

 wine making purposes. The earliest, so far, seem to 

 come from the Labrusca ; those who desire still earlier 

 grapes, will have to look to these mostly, and it seems as 

 if the Early Champion is a step in that direction, being 

 better, and, as its friends claim, ten days earlier than the 

 Hartford Prolific. From Southern Texas my friend and 

 correspondent, G. Onderdonk, of Victoria, writes to me, 

 that it is useless to cultivate the Labrusca there, as it 

 will not succeed, and their grapes are emphatically the 

 Warren (or Herbemont), and the Black Spanish (so-called, 

 but the true Lenoir), both belonging to cestivalis of the 

 Southern class. The varieties of Labrusca cannot stand 

 their summers, and this fact, with their failure in France, 

 where also they can not stand their hot and arid sum- 

 mers, lead me to the supposition that their tendency to 

 root near the surface is the cause of it. The varieties 

 of cBstivalis and cordifolia all root deeper, and are, there- 

 fore, better calculated to withstand the severe drouths. 



We, here in Missouri, are centrally located, and while 

 it will be well to cultivate some of the early varieties of 

 the Labrusca for market and early table, our reliance for 

 the main crop will, in future, be the cestivalis and cordi- 

 folia, all the more so, as they are exempt from the rav- 

 ages of that insidious little enemy, the Phylloxera, to 

 which the greater part of the Labrusca varieties are sub- 

 ject, and which may be, in a great measure, the cause of 

 their frequent failure. With these few general remarks, 

 which may serve somewhat to guide the planter in a 

 selection, I will now describe a few of the most promi- 

 nent and reliable of each class of the older varieties, 



