76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



expression, as an oak. It grows on dry soil and wet soil, on light 

 soil and heavy soil. I have never seen an inch of wood that 

 cankered or was injured by the winter ; and in quality it is cer- 

 tainly all that could be desired. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it 

 is a great privilege to live to my time of life, (for I introduced 

 that pear more than thirty years ago,) and to feel that, if I have 

 done nothing else, I have been the means of giving to the com- 

 munity such a fruit as the Beurr^ d'Anjou. I believe Mr. 

 Hyde has named no varieties this evening that I am not ready 

 to endorse. 



In regard to grape-culture, its extension is most marvellous 

 in our country. It is, as Mr. Hyde has truly remarked, but a 

 very few years — within the recollection of many present — since 

 we had no varieties, except the very wild ones, other than the 

 Isabella and the Catawba. Then followed that most glorious 

 grape, the Concord — glorious, I say, because it gives to the 

 million a fruit which they can all cultivate. Now, our Western 

 territory is filled with grapes. I had the pleasure of visiting the 

 great grape-show at Canandaigua this last autumn, — the largest 

 exhibition ever made on the American continent, — and I was 

 surprised and astonished at the superabundance and excellence 

 of the fruit. So great has been the crop this year, that Concord 

 grapes were sold at the vineyards for three and a half cents a 

 pound, and Dianas for five cents a pound ; and although I did 

 not believe they paid a profit, it was said that they did. After- 

 wards I made a visit, on a commission, to taste the must of the 

 grapes on Crooked Lake ; and for eighteen miles the banks of 

 that lake, facing to the south and south-west, (and so it is on 

 many other lakes,) were covered with vineyards far surpassing 

 those that I saw on the Rliine. So great had the crop of grapes 

 been, that they had been unable to pick them, and when the 

 frost came, on the 18th of October, it froze what there were in 

 the vineyards; and when I was there they were loading the 

 steamboats with grapes, and sending them down for wine, at 

 one and two cents a pound — not that the grapes were injured 

 for wine, but they would not do to send to market. 



Such has been the progress of grape-culture, that on the 

 shores of Lake Erie and its islands more than ten thousand 

 acres have been planted. Millions and millions of vines have 

 been planted on the shores of Lake Erie, and on the islands of 



