FOREIGN GRAPES. 91 



the premium, and not he who possesses most knowledge and 

 skill in combining mixtures. It is of incalculable impor- 

 tance to this Society, as well as to the community at large, to 

 know how to cultivate the vine and to manage the pure juice 

 so as to produce the best samples of wine, which will always 

 be sure to command the highest market value. 



(From the Horticulturist.) 

 FOREIGN GRAPES. BY MR. DOWNING. 



Mr. ToGNO is sanguine as to the introduction of the foreign 

 grape in this country for open vineyard culture. The thing 

 is impossible. Thousands of individuals have tried it on a 

 small scale in various parts of the Union ; and several per- 

 sons — as for example, M. Loubat, Mr. Longworth, etc., of 

 great experience abroad or knowledge at home, joined to 

 abundant capital, have tried it on a small scale. The result 

 in every case has been the same ; a season or two of promise, 

 then utter failure, and finally complete abandonment of the 

 theory. 



The only vineyards ever successful in America are those 

 of American grapes. As it is a pretty well established axiom, 

 that the hardiness of a variety of tree or plant is not affected 

 by grafting it on a hardier stock, though its luxuriant growth 

 may be promoted by it, we doubt if our correspondent will 

 find the mildew less inclined to make havoc on his foreign 

 grapes, when worked on our wild stocks. If he really wishes 

 to acclimate the foreign grape here, he must go to the seeds, 

 and raise two or three new generations in the American soil 

 and climate. They will then get American constitutions — 

 which no grafting, pruning, training, or manuring will give 

 them. The only thing that he can do for them, is to cheat 

 them into the belief that they are in the warmer parts of 

 Europe, by putting them in a glass house. If any of our 

 readers doubt whether grafting can enfeeble a healthy variety, 

 they have only to try the experiment by taking that variety 



