Notes and Gleanings. i [9 



I do not mean to say tliat the wild, roujjh fox, or the frost-ripened fruit of the 

 Cordi folia, is to be compared to the Golden Chasselas or the luscious Frontig- 

 nans ; but the products already secured, through culture, from these wild vines, 

 furnish the fullest assurance that the most complete success is fairly within our 

 grasp : indeed, there is good reason now for asserting that we have already 

 grown one or two varieties, unsurpassed, for wine-purposes at least, by any 

 foreign production. 



Again : there is good reason to believe that the Asiatic Vitus vinifera, from 

 which all the choice European varieties were produced, had its origin in a type 

 not more exalted than those of our own country already named. Our field of 

 experimental research in the line of improved varieties is wide and promising. 

 The seedlings grown by Mr. Bull and Dr. Grant ; the crossing of American with 

 foreign varieties, as seen in the instance of Allen's Hybrid, and the best samples 

 presented by Mr. Rogers ; to say nothing of Mr. Moore's Diana Hamburg, or 

 Mr. Caywood's much-abused Walter, or of those many accidental seedlings that 

 have sprung up by the wayside, and are yet to be a thousand times duplicated 

 in the same field, — I say, when we take account of these, and of the lessons 

 they teach, we are warranted in the assumption, not only that grape and wine 

 culture is at length permanently established, but that it will be rapidly expanded, 

 until the product, in quantity as well as quality, shall equal that of any if not of 

 all other countries. 



At present, the public judgment is not a little confused regarding the relative 

 merits of varieties already in cultivation. This is the natural result of the rap- 

 idly-multiplying new sorts that are constantly being brought before the public ; 

 and these differences, v.hich are seen to be natural enough, bid fair to continue 

 for a long time, especially as local causes are seen to exalt or depress, as the 

 case may be, all the varieties that have as yet been at all widely cultivated. 

 And again, and, too, what may also be counted not strange, perhaps, tliough 

 a little out of place in horticultural ranks, the spirit of speculation has been en- 

 couraged, and manifestly is still being fostered, as having a tendency to hedge 

 up the way to a fair investigation and development of the actual qualities, in fruit 

 and vine, of some of the to be distributed and tested late productions claimed, 

 but scarcely ytt proved, to be of high quality. 



Now, sir, it is not my habit to discuss men ; but I insist on tlie widest lati- 

 tude and freest scope in the discussion of any and all varieties oi grapes new or 

 long tried. 



Also, in view of my own experience during the past twenty-three years, for 

 the largest portion of which period my time and attention have been almost ex- 

 clusively occupied with this enterprise, I feel entirely at liberty freely to advise 

 all who inquire of me regarding the practicability of their investing considera- 

 ble sums in any given variety, and especially of such as have had but a limited 

 trial. 



The propagators and venders of new grapes should not allow themselves to 

 be over-sensitive regarding the free expression of opinions in which fruit-grow- 

 ers, and especially grape-growers, claim the right to indulge. 



When I advised the grape-growers of our Lake Shore not to purchase more 



