204 



THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



43, 44. 45- 1899. 37. Kan. Sta. Bui., 110:235. 1902- 38. Rural N. Y., 61:722. 1902. 39. 

 Traite gen. de vit., 6:282. 1903. 



Arkansas (13). Catawba Tokay (4, 13, 18, 24, 39). Cherokee (15). Fancher (?24, 39). Kel- 

 ler's White (39). Lebanon Seedling (13, 18). Lincoln (9). Mammoth Catawba (39). Mead's Seed- 

 ling (39). Merceron (39). Michigan (16, 17). Michigan (24, 39). Muncv (3). Muncy Pale 

 Red (s). Muncy, pale redf (4). Omega (39). Red Muttcy (4?, 13. 18, 24, 28, 39). Rose of Ten- 

 nescee (18). Saratoga (?24, 39). Singleton (13, 18, 28, ?39). Tekomah (39). Tokay (i). Tokay 

 (4, 28, 39). Virginia Amber (18). White Catawba (39). 



From many points of view the Catawba is the most interesting of 

 our American grapes. The elasticity of constitution which enables it to 

 adapt itself to many environments and therefore to succeed in a vast 

 region; its possible existence for centuries in the wild state, for the records 

 of a century have not divulged the secret of its origin, of its ancestry, or 

 of its introduction; its high quality and attractive appearance which give 

 it intrinsic value as a table grape and for making wine; the fact that 

 it was our first great American grape and that after a century it is still 

 one of the four leading varieties of grapes cultivated in eastern America 

 and that after this lapse of time it is the chief of all northern varieties for 

 wine-making; all these make Catawba of prime interest to the grower 

 of American grapes. The Catawba, too, has had the rare distinction of 

 having a poet, Longfellow, sing its praises: 



" Very good in its way is the Verzenay 



Or the Sillery, soft and creamy. 

 But Catawba wine has a taste more divine. 



More dulcet, delicious and dreamy. 

 There grows no \-ine, by the haunted Rhine, 



By the Danube or Guadalquiver, 

 Nor island or cape, that bears such a grape 



As grows by the beautiful River." 



In Chapter II, American Grapes, we have seen how important a part 

 the Catawba played in the first grape regions of this country. It is still 

 the leading grape along the shores of Lake Erie in northern Ohio, and 

 about the Central Lakes of New York. In the latter region immense areas 

 are devoted to this variety, the product going to the general market and 

 to the wine-cellars where it is the chief sort used in the making of cham- 

 pagne. Its characters are such that it is not too much to say that did it 

 but ripen two weeks earlier in the other grape regions of New York, the 



