1] 



UNION VILLAGE. 



This variety, by the excellent quality of its fruit, early bearing, and remarkable 

 productiveness, as well as by its size and beauty, has more than established its first 

 reputation. It is gigantic in all its proportions, giving shoots of greater diameter and 

 little less length than the Herbemont, and leaves larger than any other variety. Its 

 bunches and berries are both very large, equaling in size well-grown Black Ham- 

 burghs, In quality if considerably resembles the Isabella, but is thought superior to 

 it, and ripens nearty a week earlier. With age, and when well established, the vine 

 becomes very hardy, but while young it has sometimes suffered from the severity of 

 northern winters, so that safety has required it to be laid down. With me, unprotected, 

 it has never suffered from freezing. While young, it is disposed to grow very late — 

 it should have all of its shoots stopped the last of August, or first of tSeptember. 



TO KALON. 



This grape presents a most beautiful appearance, and in favorable seasons is of rare 

 excellence, bearing heavy crops, and ripening early, or one week before Isabella. In 

 unfavorable seasons it often fails to set well, and its peduncles are sometimes affected 

 by mildew, and drop the fruit. 



It is a very vigorous grower, with very large and abundant foliage, for which suffi- 

 cient room should be provided to prevent their early falling. 



Bunches large and shouldered. Berries very large, varying greatly in form, 

 (jolor dark purplish-blue, profusely covered with bloom. It is exceedingly sweet and 

 luscious, with delicate aroma, and when well ripened is nearly or quite without tough- 

 ness or acidity in its center. 



YORK MADEIRA. 



This is early, hardy, and when fully ripe very sweet and somewhat vinous. There 

 are two or three sub varieties of larger size, but greatly inferior quality to that which , 

 I have somewhat extensively disseminated under that name, and of which Canby's 

 August appears to be a synonym. From an investigation made by Mr. C. Downing, 

 which appears to be reliable, Hyde's Eliza is distinct, but no data are furnished for 

 description, and within my knowledge no plants of it have been disseminated. 



The Logan is a black grape of medium size, and bears a strong resemblance, in gen- 

 eral character and appearance, to the Marion, which also was found in that part of 

 Ohio. It has a brisk vinous flavor, and ripens early, but in quality, by most tastes, 

 would be placed below Isabella. The Marion also deserves notice for its earliness, in 

 which it is not surpassed by any variety of tolerable quality, and has also been used 

 with some success in wine-making. I have discontinued propagating any plants of it 

 for sale, because, by the side of Diana and Delaware, it appeared scarcely worthy of 

 attention, and wherever those are known it will not be desired unless to complete an 

 extensive collection. 



WHEN ARE GRAPES RIPE ? 



Or rather, what are the conditions that constitute ripeness ? 



In'all fruits that become excellent and refreshing when ripe, there is found, before 

 ripening, a large proportion of malic acid, accompanied by certain conditions that ren - 

 der immature fruit both unpleasant and unwholesome. 



All grapes, native and foreign, follow this rule ; but in native grapes, with a few- 

 remarkable exceptions that will be noted, there are other conditions attending their 

 unripe or partially ripened state, of very marked and peculiar character. 



The obviously distinctive characteristics of our native grapes, with the exceptions 

 noted, are of two classes ; the first existing in the skin, and the second in the body of 

 the berry. Before the commencement of the ripening process, the skin is acid to the 

 taste, with a pungent acridity, and the mass contained in it is also sharply acid, with a 

 peculiar astringency. , 



The dark kinds become so deeply colored as to be called ripe long before any 



