NOVEMBER. 603 



been familiar with the fruit for three years, and do not hesi- 

 tate to pronounce it one of the most vahiable acquisitions yet 

 made. Recently we visited its native locality at Hudson, 

 N. Y., examined the original vine, and learned all that is 

 known of its origin from the individual in whose garden it 

 sprung up from seed. This history is as follows : — 



The Rebecca originated in the garden of Mr. E. M. Peake, 

 Hudson, N. Y., about eight years ago. Mr. Peake's garden 

 is in one of the thickly settled streets of the city, and 

 nearly the usual size of a lot, perhaps 100 by 150 feet deep. 

 Between the house and the street there is a small flower 

 garden. It was here that the original vine grew. Mrs. 

 Peake was about making some alterations in her flower beds, 

 and this vine being in the way, her gardener advised her to 

 di^ it up, as it was only an " old wild grape." But disliking 

 to destroy it, she removed it, as she informed us, with her own 

 hands, and planted it very carelessly in the garden back of 

 the house, in a very poor and cold clay soil. Here the vine 

 made slow progress, but continued to increase in size until 

 the third or fourth year, when it produced a few clusters of 

 small white grapes. These appeared to possess so much 

 merit and were so much better than had been expected, that 

 pains were then taken to feed and nourish it, and prune it 

 into shape, and it soon well repaid all the labor bestowed 

 upon it. It grew vigorously, making shoots ten or fifteen 

 feet long, and bore abundant crops of the most delicious 

 grapes, until at the present time it has reached the top of the 

 house, and covers a trellis ten feet wide and twenty-five feet 

 high, loaded with fruit. Such is the history of the Rebecca. 



Hudson is a cold and rather bleak place, thirty miles from 

 Albany, situated on the banks of the Hudson River, nearly 

 two hundred feet above its surface. The soil is a stiff loam 

 on a gravelly subsoil, and well adapted to the growth of the 

 grape. The Isabella ripens here in good perfection, undoubt- 

 edly owing to the elevated situation and the porous character 

 of the subsoil. In Mr. Peake's garden the Isabella, Catawba, 

 Sweetwater, and Rebecca were all in fruit, thus showing the 

 comparative habit, growth, and time of ripening of each va- 



