FRUITS. 413 



to the trustees of the society in the report of the committee of 

 that year, and is now repeated. Mr. Blood states, " These 

 two specimens of grapes were raised from the seed of Malaga 

 raisins, and cultivated in the open air, and ripened by the last of 

 August. The vines have been in bearing nine years, and have 

 never failed to produce a good crop in the natural soil without 

 any nursing, such as bone manure, guano, etc. Their great 

 recommendation is, that they ripen four or five weeks earlier 

 than the Isabella. Slips from these vines have proved as pro- 

 ductive in Vermont and New Hampshire, and ripen as early, as 

 in the county of Essex." The two specimens were entered by 

 Mr. Blood for the two premiums offered by the society. At 

 the request of Mr. Blood, your committee visited his garden 

 September 7, when they were told by him that he considered 

 his grapes ripe; and subsequently, on September 15, they 

 received from him specimens of the fruit. 



The committee found the vines from which the grapes offered 

 for premium were produced growing in a sheltered situation 

 on a trellis in the garden of Mr. Blood. The vines did not 

 appear to have received any particular cultivation ; and Mr. 

 Blood stated that the only manure applied to them was that 

 received from a slight mulching of their roots. There was a 

 good crop of fruit upon the vines. It did not appear to your 

 committee, at the time of their visit on September 7, that the 

 grapes were fully ripe ; although in that opinion they differed 

 from Mr. Blood, and in which they were subsequently confirmed 

 by tasting the grapes September 15, when they had acquired 

 additional sweetness and llavor. Your committee feel that 

 implicit confidence is to be given to the statements of Mr. 

 Blood in every respect; and they do not intend to be under- 

 stood as questioning his account of the origin of these grapes 

 by imputing to him a possibility of error, when they state, as 

 they feel constrained to do, that every thing about his vines. 

 both the fruit and the foliage, — an unerring indication, — tended 

 to prove that they were, let their origin be what it might, of 

 the same species as the native grape of our woods. And this, 

 so far from deteriorating from their value, rather serves to en- 

 hance it; for seedling grapes of any of the foreign varieti* 

 though they may for a time do well in certain situations, are 



