154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Plant the grapes whole, in rows one foot apart, for convenience 

 of weeding. Plant the grapes one inch deep. When they 

 come up, in the following spring, water and shade while young. 

 Take up the vines in the autvimn, carefully, for new vines will 

 come up another year from the seeds which did not grow the 

 first year ; and from these slowly vegetating seeds you will have, 

 probably, your best grapes. Keep the vines you have taken up 

 in the cellar through the winter, and plant out in the spring in 

 rows six feet apart, and the vines two feet apart in the row. 

 After this, proceed with their culture as you do with other vines. 

 I consider this method of originating new grapes the best, 

 because it secures the vigor of the parent stock ; and when you 

 have broken the habit of the wilding, or, in other words, estab- 

 lished the line of divergence from the original , type, you have 

 not debilitated your vines by the weakness of the foreign parent, 

 as happens in hybridizing with them, a custom now recommended 

 for improving the quality of our own grapes and the hardihood 

 of the foreign. 



Hybridizing, or cross fertilization, is so difficult, that able 

 writers on the subject have pronounced it impossible. Some 

 grape-growers, however, claim to have succeeded, and it is 

 certainly quite possible that they have obtained true hybrids. 



Let us look at this matter a moment, and see, first, what are- 

 the difficulties which hinder success ; and second, if they can be 

 surmounted, what would be the benefit of obtaining a true 

 hybrid. 



The blossom of the grape contains the germ, setting close 

 upon the footstalk, five stamens which surround the germ, 

 which are surmounted by the anthers which contain the pollen 

 or fertilizing dust for the impregnation of the germ ; and all 

 these parts of fructification are closely covered by the calix, or 

 cap. This calix is lifted by the elongation of the stamens, under 

 the stimulus of the warm sun of June, and tln"Own off by their 

 natural divergence. At this time the pollen is ripe, and instantly 

 impregnates the germ ; hyl)ridizing under such circumstances is 

 impossible, therefore, but is sometimes possible for the following 

 reasons. 



Grapes which have perfect blossoms, and whose stamens arc 

 long enough to lift tlie anthers to such a height as to shed the 

 fertilizing dust upon the stigma, (which would insure impregna- 



