Notes and Gleanings. 291 



" Throughout an extent of territory running over twenty-five degrees of lati- 

 tude, and from ocean to ocean, the native vine grows spontaneously, is as hardy 

 as the forests it inhabits, and ripens as surely as the apple or any other fruit. 

 All localities are not alike favorable for its growth ; but it may be assumed as 

 a general law, that, where Nature has planted any of our wild species, there 

 other new and improved sorts may be raised by hybridization, either natural or 

 artificial, which will be equally as well adapted to that territory. 



" In regard to the wines of our country, I may be permitted to remark, that 

 from many comparisons made between the better samples of American wine on 

 exhibition at the Paris Exposition with foreign wines of similar character, as well 

 as from the experience of many European wine-tasters, we have formed a higher 

 estimate of our ability to make good wines than we had before entertained ; and, 

 from investigations in vine-culture, we are now more confident than ever that 

 America can and will be a great wine-producing country. 



" All that is necessary for us to rival the choicest products of other parts of 

 the world, will, with experiments and practice, be attained. We have several 

 excellent varieties of the grape, to which constant additions are being made. 

 These are born on American soil, and suited to it, — a soil and temperature 

 extensive and varied enough for every range of quality and quantity. He, there- 

 fore, who shall discover a plat of ground capable of yielding a Johannisberger, 

 a Tokay, or a Chateau Margaut, will be a public benefactor ; and somewhere be- 

 tween the Lakes and the Gulf, and the two oceans that circumscribe it, we shall 

 find it. 



" General View OF THE Work of the Society. — In taking a general 

 view of the work of this society, we cannot but be struck with the richness, the 

 embarrassing richness, I may say, of the material presented to us. In making 

 up our catalogue, we have been obliged in every species to omit, for some 

 slight deficiency, varieties possessing so many good qualities as almost to grieve 

 us to pass them by. It has been objected to pomological conventions, that the 

 testimony to the qualities of the different sorts of fruit is so conflicting as greatly 

 to impair their value ; but we believe, that, to one accustomed to weighing evi- 

 dence, the marvel will be, not that there should be discordant testimony, but 

 that in our vast country, with its endless diversity of soil and climate, there 

 should be so many kinds whose uniform excellence is either attested unanimous- 

 ly, or with barely exceptions enough to prove the rule. There may be some 

 here who remember a motion, at the first meeting of the Congress of Fruit- 

 growers, for a committee to report a list of one hundred varieties of pears for 

 general cultivation. The proposal was received with surprise at its audacity, if 

 not with a stronger feeling at its folly ; for had we not been told, by novices who 

 thought they had got hold of an idea which more experienced cultivators had 

 failed to discern, that there were not above twenty pears of any merit 1 Yet the 

 list of twelve pears accepted at that meeting had in 1856, only eight years after, 

 grown to ninety-four, recommended for general cultivation, either on pear or 

 quince, or as promising well. 



" The progress we have made is nowhere more forcibly shown than by the 

 fact, that, while thus increasing our list, the standard of excellence has not been 



