SECRETARY'S REPORT. 153 



wine of good quality. From this moment its cultivation steadily- 

 increased, until the wine crop, mostly from this grape, has 

 reached tlic large sum of nearly two millions of gallons. 



Well might Major Adlum claim that, in giving this grape to 

 his countrymen, he had done more service than if he had paid 

 the national debt. 



This Carolina grape, however, was not suited to the short 

 season of the north ; it had also a constitutional defect, the rot, 

 which often injured and sometimes destroyed the crop. Still, it 

 was the first grape from which a good wine could be made, and 

 the pioneer which led to the planting of vineyards, and wine- 

 making — on the large scale — in this country. Many seedlings 

 have been raised from this grape, but none of them have proved 

 equal to the parent. Perhaps it is too far from its native haunts, 

 and the seedlings revert to the type from which the parent 

 sprung. 



At the north we must have grapes which arc hardy, vigorous 

 and early, for our seasons are so short and our summers so 

 changeful, that no others can succeed here permanently. Many 

 good seedlings have been raised, and others are growing which 

 assure us of complete success. These facts should encourage 

 lovers of horticulture to raise seedlings ; for the more numerous 

 the efforts in this direction, the more prizes will be drawn, and 

 the sooner we shall obtain those choice grapes for the table 

 and wine, (now as I confidently believe, in the near future,) not to 

 mention the double satisfaction of doing good to our fellows, 

 and obtaining a pecuniary siiccess at the same time. The seed- 

 lings should be protected from the hot sun until they get two or 

 three rough leaves, after which they are safe. My experience 

 leads me to the belief that seedlings from the same grape, raised 

 in soils of different quality, and various locality, will be likely 

 to vary in constitutional force, hardihood, earliness and quality, 

 much more than when raised in one locality, (where all the 

 circumstances of soil, aspect, &c., are always the same,) and 

 consequently, the successes will be multiplied. 



SEEDLINGS. 



If you wish to obtain seedling grapes, select your seeds from 

 the ripest and best bunches, having such qualities of earliness, 

 vigor, size, beauty or excellence as you desire to perpetuate. 



20* 



