MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE- 

 GROWING 



CHAPTER I 

 THE DOMESTICATION OF THE GRAPE 



THE domestication of an animal or a plant is a milestone in 

 the advance of agriculture and so becomes of interest to every 

 human being. But, more particularly, the materials, the events 

 and the men who direct the work of domestication are of interest 

 to those who breed and care for animals and plants ; the grape- 

 grower should find much profit in the story of the domestication 

 of the grape. What was the raw material of a fruit known since 

 the beginning of agriculture and wherever temperate fruits are 

 grown ? How has this material been fashioned into use ? Who 

 were the originative and who the directive agents ? These are 

 fundamental questions in the improvement of the grape, answers 

 to which will also throw much light on the culture of it. 



Botanists number from forty to sixty species of grapes in the 

 world. These are widely distributed in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, all but a few being found in temperate countries. Thus, 

 more than half of the named species come from the United 

 States and Canada, while nearly all of "the others are from 

 China and Japan, with but one species certainly growing wild 

 in southwestern Asia and bordering parts of Europe. All true 

 grapes have more or less edible fruits, and of the twenty or 

 more species grown in the New World more than half have been 

 or are being domesticated. Of the Old World grapes, only one 

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