16 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Diana, which was a seedUng from Catawba, was discovered 

 in ]Mihon, INIassachusetts, and while it proved hardier than its 

 parent, its ripening period was too late to be dependable in our 

 climate. The Isabella, unless grown in a very favorable location, 

 seldom ripened to perfection, so that cuhivators looked with 

 longing to the time when an early, good quality grape should be 

 produced, and that time was not far off. 



About the time the Isabella grape was first grown there lived near 

 Boston a man, who by trade was a gold beater, and while successful 

 at his business was at the same time very much devoted to horti- 

 cultural pursuits and particularly to grape growing, which he 

 carried on in a limited way in his garden at Dorchester. This man 

 was Ephraim AYales Bull; he was born in Boston, ^Nlarch 4, 1806, 

 at a house on Washington street, between Franklin and Milk 

 streets, almost on the exact spot where the Transcript office now is. 

 About this house was a large garden, in which the young man 

 loved to work and it was here that he developed his love for nature 

 and horticuhure. At that time Boston was a large and growing 

 town; Washington street was the tillage highway and cows grazed 

 on the Common. Young Bull was evidently a very active and 

 studious child; we learn that at the age of eleven years he won a 

 Franklin medal and we are also told that he was a great reader, 

 often reacUng all night. His schooling, however, was cut short and 

 the boy was early apprenticed to a Mr. Lauriat, a chemist, and with 

 him probably learned his trade of gold beating. 



In 1826 Mr. Bull married and soon after removed to Boston and 

 went into business for himself on Cornhill, making his home on 

 Fayette street, where again he grew grapes in his garden. Close 

 confinement to his business, to which he gave a great deal of his 

 time, soon brought him to a point where it was a choice between 

 his heahh or his business; and, realizing that he could not afford to 

 lose his health, he began to look about for a place where he could 

 lead an out-of-door life and at the same time earn a living. After 

 considerable searching Mr. Bull decided to settle in Concord, 

 Massachusetts, where his brother Albert Lawrence was living; 

 so he bought a small farm of seventeen acres on the Lexington 

 road and there removed with his family in 1836. 



The soil on this farm was of a sandy nature with a slope to the 



