GRAPE-BREEDING 283 



doubtful whether any other cultivated plant at any time in 

 the history of the world has attained such importance in so 

 short a time from the wild state as American grapes. It would 

 seem that almost every possible combination between species 

 worth considering has been made. Through hybridization, 

 species and varieties have become so mixed that the grape- 

 breeder cannot now work intelligently with these gross forms 

 and must work with characters rather than with species and 

 varieties which are but combinations of characters. Great 

 progress, it is true, has been made in the past in breeding grapes 

 in America, but the work has been wholly empirical and ex- 

 tremely wasteful. Many varieties have been called, but few 

 have been chosen. With the new knowledge of breeding and 

 with the experience of past workers, progress should be made 

 with greater certainty. From what has been done and from 

 work now under way, it is not too much to say that we shall 

 soon be growing grapes everywhere in America, and kinds so 

 diverse that they will meet not only all purposes to which 

 grapes are now put, but also the demand for better grapes made 

 by more critical consumers. 



