124 



New varieties of native Grapes. 



Vol. VIII. 



following, take up the vines; pot them in 

 six or eiijht inch pots; put them on mode- 

 rate bottom heat, and train as directed tor 

 the first summer. In April or May, take 

 the vines out of the pots, shake the earth 

 from tlie roots, taking care that they are not 

 broken, and plant in the open ground, in 

 very rich soil. With care, this can be done 

 in ihe dryest weather. Last spring we had 

 a drought here, lasting near nine weeks — 

 from the ISth of April to the 13th of June — 

 in the midst of wliich I transferred vines, 

 both seedlings and cuttings, from pots to the 

 open ground, at mid-day; and, watering them 

 copiously, their growth was but slightly 

 checked. The seedlings are now from five 

 to eight feet high; one of them is one and 

 three-quarter inches in circumference at the 

 ground ; and all, when pruned this winter, 

 preparatory to training according t^ Hoare's 

 system, will fiirnish fine scions for grafting 

 next June. Here are two years spent on 

 the seedlings; — the third, scions from them 

 will be worked on strong stocks; and, in the 

 fourth summer, I confidently count on hav- 

 ing specimens of fruit. For I do not agree 

 with M. Van Mons, in what he considers 

 *an invariable principle, that a graft does 

 not bloom sooner than the parent stock from 

 which it was taken.' Seed from these spe- 

 cimens may be sown, and the same course 

 pursued, taking care that generation shall 

 follow generation without interruption, with 

 the hope of getting varieties that will suit 

 our climate, and be as far superior to the 

 common sorts, as the improved pears of Van 

 Mons are superior to those known when he 

 commenced his labours. 



" That the result will be worth all the time 

 and care bestowed on the experiment, I think 

 we may confidently believe, from the extra 

 ordinary excellence of Norton's and Cald- 

 well's seedlings — the former of Richmond, 

 Va., the latter of Washington city: — both 

 being only of the first generation, but whe- 

 ther from wildings, or from sorts in a pro- 

 gressive state of amelioration, is not, I be 

 lieve, clearly ascertained. M. Van Mons 

 got good pears only after seven or eight 

 successive generations, each occupying from 

 four to fifteen years ; — or, as stated by M. 

 Poiteau, in his ' Origin and Development 

 of the Theory of Van Mens,' adding the 

 requisite years in the first five generations 

 of the pear, a point is reached where none 

 other than good and excellent pears are ob- 

 tained, at the end of forty-two years. But 

 here are grapes of excellent qualities ob 

 tained in one generation; and the genera- 

 tions of the grape may be certainly limited 

 to four years, instead of extending to fifteen, 

 as did the first generations of pears with 



Van Mons. As to one of these sorts, Nor- 

 ton's Seedling, I can speak from my own 

 observation. It is certainly a great acquisi- 

 tion to the country; for while its quality is 

 very good, in productiveness and freedom 

 from blast, it stands unrivalled. I have 

 vines, some of whose fruit on the lower 

 branches has been lying, all this wet sum- 

 mer, on the ground ; and it is now ripening 

 without a single rotten berry being found on 

 the bunches, so situated. Yet this vine is 

 the product of the first generation, as al- 

 ready stated. 



"With such encouragement before them, 

 and with the certainty of great profit from 

 the sale of vines that will suit the soil and 

 climate of the United States; — and in their 

 freedom from blast, and their great produc- 

 tiveness, and their fine qualities, affording a 

 certain and abundant return for the care be- 

 stowed on their cultivation, will not some, 

 of our intelligent and enterprising nursery- 

 men undertake the experiment? They have 

 the Isabella, Catawba, and Norton's Seed- 

 ling — native varieties in the first genera- 

 tions, it is believed, and first stage of ame- 

 lioration, to begin with, by which four years 

 of labour will be saved ; — and if they go to 

 the forest for wild sorts, they have an exten- 

 sive variety among which to make their se- 

 lection. 



" The Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 is doing more for horticulture, than any 

 other institution of the kind in the Union. 

 Yet, among its premiums for grapes, for 

 1843, there is but one for native grapes; 

 and that is only ^3; — while for foreign, the 

 premiums are from four to eight dollars. 

 Might not the Society be induced to offer 

 premiums, hereafter, for neiv varieties of 

 native grapes, produced on the principles 

 of Van Mons] Admitting the correctness 

 of the opinions of Mr. Knight and others, 

 on the gradual deterioration and final ex- 

 tinction of all the improved varieties of 

 fruit, ought we not to be looking to the 

 means of replacing the few good varieties 

 of the grape we now have, when they shall 

 have yielded to their fate, and shall live 

 only in the records of the past? 



"James Camak. 



"Athens, Ga., Aug. 2Gth, 1843." 



About five and thirty years ago, Paul Cooper, an 

 entprprisina; and public spirited farmrr of Woodbury, 

 IV. J., and a venerated friend and relative of tlie editor, 

 took from the woods in ElsinborouL'h, Salem county, 

 the original root of the Elsinbnrough crape — from this 

 vine, which was for many years under his care, a lux- 

 uriant bearer, this grape has been considerably spread 

 abroad. It is sometimes called the Cooper grape. 

 Thouffli smaller than the Isabella or Catawba, there is 

 not perhaps a more delicious native grape, brought 

 to our market. It is rather slow in its growth, when 

 young— it is easily propagated from the slip, and is 

 generally a good bearer.— Eb. 



