328 FRUIT-GROWING 



foreign vines, which it will take centuries to 

 adapt to our soil and climate." It was not 

 until the native sorts were first propagated by 

 William Robert Prince at his Long Island nur- 

 series that the native grapes really got a start 

 in American vineyards. This was done about 

 the year 1830 and prior to that time no one had 

 taken any great amount of trouble to attempt a 

 systematic cultivation of native sorts. 



At this time the Catawba and Isabella were 

 the two varieties chiefly grown, and it was 

 not until after the introduction of the Concord 

 in 1852 that any noticeable improvement was 

 made. Two years later, John Fisk Allen, of 

 Salem, Massachusetts, produced the first 

 hybrid between the American and European 

 races of grapes. This was accomplished by 

 crossing the Chasselas Golden with the Isa- 

 bella and the resulting grape was named 

 Allen's Hybrid. It was the first of a long list 

 of such crosses, some of which have resulted 

 in greatly improved varieties. This work, 

 started in the middle of the last century, is still 

 progressing and the plant breeders of to-day 

 can find few plants that are more interesting 

 than the grape. After more than a half-cen- 

 tury of this work, however, we have not yet 

 obtained a hybrid that can equal some of the 

 native varieties in those characters which 

 make a grape successful commercially. 



