Notes and Gkanmgs. 373 



Dr. Grant's Address at Canandaigua.* — Mr. Tilton, — With your per- 

 mission, I propose to review briefly the address of Dr. C. W. Grant, read at 

 Canandaigua, N.Y., and again before Whitlock's Club in New- York City. 



' When a gentleman is invited to address an assembly on so important an occa- 

 sion as the meeting of the New-York-State Grape-Growers' Association, is it usual, 

 or in good taste, to appropriate the hour entire to his own benefit ? Had he alluded 

 to his personal matters incidentally, I think no one would have taken exceptions ; 

 and I am quite sure I would not have instituted this query. It may subserve 

 public interest if you or some other gentleman will answer this question rela- 

 tive to the ostensible purpose of the writer on such an occasion, which all will 

 agree was undisguised in this instance. When his subject was announced, 

 *' The Past, Present, and Future of Grape-Culture," the people seemed to feel 

 that they were to receive some instruction in relation to the management of the 

 vine. During the whole reading, no allusion was made to culture ; but the 

 character of varieties was considered only. There was no American variety that 

 did not come under his ban, excepting "his trinity," as they were styled by a 

 gentleman in the discussion at Canandaigua, — lona, Israella, and Eumelan. 



He says, " It requires care and skill to perfect the Delaware ; the Hartford 

 and Concord are wild and foxy ; the Isabella never ripens to the centre, and is 

 marked not only by feebleness of flavor, but often by a strong savor of native im- 

 purity ; Catawba, foxy impurity, acridity of skin, and an unripe acid centre; 

 Diana, offensive aroma ; Walter, scarcely distinguishable from Diana ; Adiron- 

 dac, no large amount of goodness added over the Isabella ; Diana Hamburg, 

 foreign, not hardy; Ives, the extreme of foxiness." Elsingburg, Norton's Vir- 

 ginia, Lincoln, and Herbemont are nowhere. And now we will step forward to 

 the third era in creation. Blessed is he who liveth in the days of lona, Israella, 

 and Eumelan ! " Rogers's Hybrids do not contain any foreign admixture." So, 

 Mr. Rogers, you see you should have lived in the " middle period " to have had 

 your efforts appreciated. A new era indeed ! I never before knew that wild 

 grape-seeds would stray from their class in this manner. Were it possible for 

 them to do so, our ancestors would have enjoyed Grant's "third period." The 

 laws of Nature are invariable, unless changed by volition or accident, either of 

 which is possible in the crossing of plants. That such varieties as Rogers's 

 Hybrids should have proceeded from the Vitis Labnisca, without the admixture 

 of our native improvements or foreign varieties, is only absurd, as the most 

 casual will admit. The Black Hamburg is traceable in nearly all of them ; and, 

 holding this opinion, I think I shall not suffer by the criticism of any gentleman 

 of experience. Now, is it not ungracious for a gentleman, who has never made 

 any pretensions to scientific crossing, to say to one like Mr. Rogers, who has 

 spent most of his life in experimental researches (the result of which has bene- 

 fited the world materially, and, in conjunction with others, has developed the laws 

 of mixture, that may result in far greater perfection in future ages), that he is 

 n:istaken, and that his provable crosses are no more than freaks of Nature 1 and 



* The Editors publish this letter in accordance with the rule they have adopted, — to give both parties 

 a fair hearing in any disputed matter ; but must disclaim any indorsement of Mr. Caywood's state- 

 ments. 



