FRUIT committee's REPORT. 41 



not seem to be ripe on the 20th of September, and was not rated high. It was 

 our good fortune to see most of the varieties, on the vines, in the garden of 

 Hon. M. P. Wilder, and of tasting the fruit freshly plucked. Then, again, 

 through the kindness of the same gentleman, we were furnished with samples 

 at our rooms, to test, which trial was made by some of our best judges, and the 

 results are given above. Still later, we were favored with an opportunity to 

 visit Col. Wilder early in December, and then again test some of the Rogers' 

 Hybrids ; and we are happy to say that from all we have seen of the various 

 numbers during the past year, we are very much better pleased with them than 

 ever before ; and truly believe that some of them are destined to become 

 highly popular and valuable varieties, especially for market. We have given 

 our judgment of these grapes, as they appeared this year, but may, from the 

 experience of another year, change it as much as we have changed it the past 

 year; for it is very certain that none can safely judge of a grape, until the 

 vine gets age, and the fruit has been grown in different localities and under 

 varying circumstances. So far as relates to quality, merely, we do not yet 

 regard any of these grapes as equal to Delaware, Allen's Hybrid, lona and 

 others. 



Our attention was called to some grapes sent to the President of the Society, 

 by Mr. Moore, of Rochester, N. Y. They are called hybrids, and were raised 

 by Mr. Moore from seed of the native grape hybridized with the foreign. The 

 best of all of them was the Diana Hamburgh, from the Diana crossed by 

 Black Hamburgh. We append a description of it, taken from Hovey's 

 Magazine. "This is considered the best of the collection, clusters very large, 

 six to eight inches in length, usually longer in proportion to breadth than the 

 Hamburgh, regularly shouldered, compact: berries roundish, larger than the 

 Concord, dark crimson, with a rich purple bloom mingled with a fiery lustre in 

 the sunlight; flesh perfectly tender, breaking to the centre and letting out the 

 seeds like a foreign grape, of sugary sweetness, in flavor remarkably like the 

 Hamburgh but more aromatic and lively, fully equalling that excellent variety. 

 The vine is a slow grower, making firm short-juinted shoots, with large buds 

 and deeply lobed leaves of medium thickness, peculiarly crimped and often rolled 

 inward; hardy and "very productive. Fruit ripens after the Concord, and a 

 week or ten days earlier than the Diana." This fruit did not appear to be fully 

 ripe the 20th of September, but we formed a very favorable opinion of the 

 variety, from this one trial of it. 



The '• Clover Street Black," was another variety from the same source ; this, 

 too, being a cross between Black Hamburgh and Diana: bunch large, shoul- 

 dered ; berries good size, black, with heavy bloom ; flesh tender,- with a sweet 

 lively flavor resembling Black Hamburgh, but more spirited ; seemed to be 

 fully ripe the 20th of September. We regard this as a very promising variety, 

 and hope and believe it will become still better with age, as this is its first 

 year of bearing. The vine is said to be a good grower and hardy. 



