SECRETARY'S REPORT. 65 



not because I do not know it lays me open to that charge, but 

 to avoid too much circumlocution, and to save time, of which, I 

 have no doubt, I shall consume too much. 



I said that grape culture is possible in Massachusetts. I do 

 not mean by that, that all grapes can be grown here ; but I do 

 mean, that grapes have always been here since the hrst white 

 man set his foot upon the soil of Massachusetts, when he found 

 the grape so abundant that he christened the country, " Vine- 

 land." We had, then, only to get out of this native stock, 

 which was adapted to our climate, and perfectly hardy, a seed- 

 ling of good quality ; we had only to break it of its old habits, 

 in short, to make it edible, to attain the object we had in view. 

 I do not doubt that this idea occurred to many before I took it 

 up. The intelligent horticulturist saw it would be the work of 

 a lifetimie, and we are a people impatient of delays ; we want 

 our results swiftly ; and, therefore, although they saw it to be 

 possible, and might recommend it to others, they forbore to pro- 

 ceed themselves with a course of breeding which involved the 

 work of a lifetime, and perhaps more. In my own case, after 

 having grown grapes of all kinds in my garden in Boston, with 

 great success, I found myself unable to grow them on a sunny 

 slope where I felt sure I could do so.- What was I to do ? I 

 loved the grape, and must have it. I might go to Pennsylvania 

 and grow grapes, but I could not take Massachusetts with me, 

 and I wanted Massachusetts, and I wanted the grape too. So I 

 set about raising seedlings from this native stock, and in the 

 second generation, I got a good grape ; and from that grape I 

 have seedlings still better ; and from them again, I have seed- 

 lings growing ; and I think I have established the fact that the 

 time will come when out of these successive reproductions, you 

 will have grapes as good as you desire, — grapes as good, perhaps, 

 as those of any part of the world, — hardy, perfectly adapted to 

 our climate, and which may be grown in field culture, as you 

 grow any other crop ; for I have found the grape more certain 

 and more constant than any other fruit crop, not excepting even 

 the hardy currant of the garden. For twelve years, I have had 

 the grape ripen its crop perfectly every successive year. Four 

 years ago, on the last day of September, we had the thermometer 

 at twenty degrees, freezing all the young wood, and all the 

 buds which were immature, but still, under these most unfav- 

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