240 THE GRAPE CULTURIST. 



old favorites, like the Concord, Catawba and Delaware, 

 hold their own, and even lead in the market, however 

 closely pressed they may be by more recent productions. 



Rogers' Hybrids, which at one time gave promise of 

 being valuable acquisitions, have lost ground rapidly, 

 and of the twenty or more of those first introduced and 

 disseminated under numbers, and later by name, not 

 more than a half dozen remain in general cultivation, 

 and of these few are ever seen in market. Just why 

 these grapes were pushed aside it might be difficult to 

 determine, for there are really some good and valuable 

 varieties among them, and these show very little, if any, 

 of the foreign blood which it was claimed they possessed. 



A few years later another and very distinct lot of 

 hybrids were introduced by Mr. J. H. Ricketts, of New- 

 burgh, N. Y., whose skill as a hybridizer of the grape has 

 probably never been surpassed in this or any other 

 country. But, unfortunately, he selected poor material 

 for the foundation of the structure he hoped to build ; 

 for the foreign blood ( Vitis vinifera), when intermingled 

 with that of our native species, has always proved to be 

 an enfeebling element in this climate, and very few vari- 

 eties of such a mixed parentage have ever become pop- 

 ular with vineyardists. Perhaps, with the free use of 

 the recently approved fungicides, some of these hybrids 

 may become worthy of more extended cultivation, and it 

 might be well, for those who have the means and incli- 

 nation, to give them a fair trial under such conditions. 



Many other hybridists are in the field, and some of 

 their productions are, to say the least, promising, but it 

 is well for the practical vineyardist to keep in mind the 

 fact that a variety may succeed in one locality, and not 

 in another, and for this reason we are rarely enabled to 

 determine its value from a single vine, or even a half 

 dozen, growing in the grounds of the originator, or those 

 of some friend who is coddling the plants because they 



