NATIVE SEEDLING FRUITS. 65 



bj^bridized seed, abnost all, I was going to say all, of them show- 

 ing the faults of the foreign, — lateness, tendency to mildew, and 

 inability to withstand our winters without protection. Some of 

 these experiments are, perhaps, worth trying, and I trust may 

 prove successful. 



The prominent features in the foreign varieties of grapes are fine 

 quality, large bunches, inabilit}' to withstand the cold of our win- 

 ters without protection, leaf exceedingly subject to mildew, wood 

 soft and spongy, and lateness of ripening. Now among these 

 points the only ones desirable to perpetuate are fine quality and 

 large bunches ; the others are defects. The points of the native 

 varieties are earliness of ripening, hardiness, and poor quality 

 generally, in some a tendency to drop from the bunch, and a gen- 

 eral adaptation to our climate. Of these all that it is desirable to 

 retain are hardiness, earliness, and adaptation to our climate. 

 Now if we could extract the good qualities from each parent with- 

 out also taking the poor, it would be one thing, but actual experi- 

 ments prove that it is almost impossible. Constitutional defects 

 are very likely to be peipetuated in the offspring of either plants 

 or animals, more likely, I often think, than desirable qualities. 

 Now the grape is unlike anj- other variety of fruit in these re- 

 spects, for in the other fruits we grow seedlings from the same 

 species ; not as in the hybrid grape from two distinct species, — 

 which some botanists or horticulturists at one time doubted the 

 possibility of crossing together, although others have claimed that 

 they are the same species, — and therefore in the other fruits we 

 can avoid these serious defects by not using those with weak hab- 

 its for parents. 1 know how fascinated one becomes over some of the 

 new hybrid grapes ; we plant them in our gardens, they are strong, 

 vigorous growers, and will withstand trouble better when young 

 than afterwards. In three years we have a few bunches of ripe 

 grapes, every thing looks lovely, we have petted them, laid them 

 down and covered in the winter; then we have a j^ear like 1873, 

 in which there is considerable mildew, and grapes are rather poor, 

 followed by a season like 1874, — grapes do not ripen, vines are 

 badly mildewed, the wood is mostly killed, and the vines are so 

 much injured that with good seasons afterwards it will be difficult 

 for them to recover, and these grapes are called hardy. What 

 does hardiness mean in Massachusetts? Does it not mean the 

 ability in any tree or plant to stand up, — not taken down and 



