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specimens of grapes at the exhibition were ripened by the aid 

 of glass ; but the Committee did not feel free to act only on 

 the condition of the fruit as presented. If contributors had 

 been to that extra expense they verily needed gratuities. It 

 may yet be a question, after finer varieties are obtained, 

 whether such, added to the Delaware, Diana and Rebecca, 

 may not be profitably raised under cheap glass structures, as 

 they would require some less care than foreign varieties. 



As a general rule, all things should be cultivated where 

 they thrive and produce best year by year, and exchanged for 

 products raised elsewhere. Rail transportation, ice packing, 

 canning, and fruit preserving houses, must bring tropical and 

 other fruits to our doors, at all seasons, cheaper by far than he 

 can raise inferior and uncertain kinds. Choice foreign grapes 

 and a few other luxuries may be forced and fostered, and re- 

 munerate for the time and means spent. But who would now 

 think of raising the sweet potato, tobacco, or the negro, under 

 glass, or by out-door culture in the Northern States, even at 

 their former high prices ? The fever for the latter is subsid- 

 ing to a healthy condition, and although some, propagators still 

 force the eyes of the former, few have the folly to purchase 

 the slips. We must ever look to old Virginia and the Caro- 

 linas, not only for the best sweet potatoes but for Norton's and 

 other Virginia grapes, and the very good Avines made there- 

 from. 



Unquestionably some varieties of native grapes, such as the 

 Isabella, may produce and ripen well in some situations, as on 

 the walls of houses, and be useful in families. But our foxy 

 and pulpy grapes, in years when they ripen best, cannnot com- 

 pare or compete in the market with the more delicious, as 

 the Catawba, raised farther south. 



Of the grapes which ripen by open culture, few can be en- 

 dured as table grapes besides the Delaware, which this year 

 has not matured, and when it does is often taken by the birds. 

 Tolerable wine may be made from this grape without sugar 

 Conjioisseurs, ho\yevef,, aj-e not pleased with any wines yet 



