16 



learned to reject tlie skins, lie is ready to appreciate Diana, and calls that exoollent, " and 

 abundantly large ; like great Uoussanne, good for wine and for table. Allen's Hybrid 

 he also pronounces most excellent, and growing in estimation with use; as good as White 

 Frontignan, which it resembles. Elsingburg, very rich, spicy, and like foreign kinds, its 

 only objection is its size. Its skin is inseparable from its flesh, but so thin, that it is no 

 more annoying than that of the largest whortleberries. To be fully enjoyed, two or three 

 must be taken at once. Lincoln is excellent — good as Pineau of Burgundy — Lenoir the 

 same, Pauline excellent. Ilerbemont very good, brisk, and ' wiuey.' " Now, if we ask 

 him to make trial of the Prolific, he is repelled by its offensive odor ; and the same of 

 Concord, but less so. On trial, he finds the skin pungent, and flavor partaking largely of 

 its odor ; and the large, fibrous, unripe center not to be swallowed. Isabella, like Black 

 Currants and Catawba, not at all fit for enjoyment. After an experience of years, the 

 judgment remains the same ; and so it must continue, for it has made the acquaintance of 

 the highest excellence in its kind. 



A person Avho has known only the thoroughly wild grapes, of which the Hartford Pro- 

 lific and Northern Muscadine are favorable representatives, will generally be unable at first 

 to perceive and enjoy the excellence of the best; he will miss the thrilling pungency and 

 the strong odor, which are not only not offensive, but even pleasurable to him, as are many 

 other gross things to which the taste has been educated from childhood. But one who 

 has become fomiliar witli the Isabella in its best condition, and calls it good, will, on eat- 

 ing Catawba grapes in their best condition, pronounce them " better " — as much better as 

 Ills tasting power enables him, more or less discriminatingly, to appreciate the pleasure- 

 giving qualities of each. If he now immediately again makes trial of the Isabella, he will 

 find much less pleasure in it, and may even find difHculty in believing that he is tasting 

 from the same bunch that a few moments before gave him so much pleasure. The more 

 he eats of the CataAvba, the more fully he is able to detect and appreciate the excellencies 

 of the Catawba, in which it surpasses the Isabella. He finds a large amount of the re- 

 freshing princi])le, which is small in the Isabella. He is not without the perception of the 

 fiiults of both, but will find great and increasing enjoyment in the Catawba. If he now 

 makes trial of the Diana in perfection, he will not only declare it fiir better than Catawba, 

 but be able to point out discriminatingly the excellencies and defects of the Catawba, and 

 also see that the assemblage of good qualities in the Diana constitute it an nnexception- 

 able grape ; and he will now begin to be astonished at the large measure of delight that 

 grapes can furnish. Now, on returning to the Isabella, he will scarcely be able to call it 

 good — and all that fall below it he will find decidedly had ; and he will fully compro- 

 hend the feelings of those whose tastes have been educated in the use of the best 

 foreign kinds. So rapidly will the discriminating power, and the increased capacity for 

 enjoyment be developed, that often, at one fiiir trial of the different kinds, in which they 

 are brought in direct comparison with each other, a person is enabled to form a true opin- 

 ion of their general merits as to flavor. But a more extended use, and in quantity, is re- 

 quired to complete the knowledge of them, on which an abiding judgment may i-est ; for 

 the great value of grapes does not consist in the momentary pleasure afforded while par- 

 waking of them, but in the spirit and generous refreshment afforded, which can not be fully 

 understood except by those who have made free use of the wine-giving kinds. Some of 

 the best kinds of peaches ^Jossess a large measure of this quality ; but to manifest it in the 

 fullest degree they must, at just the right stage of ripeness, be taken from the tree early 

 in the morning, before the sun has liad much power upon them. By the afternoon the 

 spirit will be gone, the. taste remaining ; but not that full excellence that goes to the mak- 

 ing up of " flavor." After a few days of culture, a person of fine perception Avill be so far 

 advanced in the knowledge of "flavor," that he may sit by the side of a foreign taste of 

 the nicest discrimination, for a critical examination and enjoyment of the Delaware, which 

 both will admit has no superior among the foreign kinds, and none equal among the na- 

 tive Americans, for the full satisfaction of every educated taste. So rapid is the develop- 

 ment of this faculty of enjoyment, under favorable circumstances, that as soon as the means 

 are afforded, the great majority of tastes will become so well informed, that only the best will 

 be sought for by the mass of purchasers, who buy freely for themselves and families. The 

 idea of growing fruit for market that is not good enough for "family use," is a purpose to 

 deceive the uninformed, which is not born of benevolence, and can not be measured by the 

 golden rule; and we may with safety hold the faith that it will not continue to be acted 

 upon, when the true stale of the case becomes known, which is, that the best kinds can be 

 the most cheaply produced. 



