2 THE GRAPE CULTURJST. 



tion, and for many years all of our vineyards were 

 planted with the foreign varieties, which, of course, 

 failed ; but the experiment was often repeated, but with 

 no better results. Even so late as thirty years ago, and 

 while writing the first edition of this work, a German 

 acquaintance was planting fifty acres with foreign varie- 

 ties on Long Island, insisting that all previous failures 

 with these vines was due to want of proper pruning and 

 training, and not, as claimed, to an uncongenial climate ; 

 but he had no better success than the hundreds of other 

 enthusiasts who had previously entered the same field, 

 only to retire with a certain amount of dear-bought 

 experience. But after nearly, or quite, two centuries of 

 such unsuccessful attempts to grow the European varie- 

 ties of the grape in open culture in this country east of 

 the Kocky Mountains, vineyardists turned their atten- 

 tion to the improvement of our native species, and the 

 results are to be seen in the many excellent varieties 

 now in cultivation. It is only since the foreign varie- 

 ties have been discarded for the hitherto neglected native 

 sorts, that grape culture in the East has become an 

 important and established branch of American industry. 



