224 PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON CULTURE. 



parts of the union which lie rather further to the north than 

 where the maize or Indian corn is to be considered a sure crop. 

 So conscious of this character of adaptation to climate, are 

 even the vignerons of other countries, that demands have 

 already been made for our native varieties, to be transferred 

 to other climes, and the author has already at the request of his 

 correspondents, transmitted a number of American varieties to 

 Marseilles, Germany, and other parts of Europe, and even to 

 Madeira ; and it has been asserted, than an American vine 

 introduced into France some years since, and known by the 

 title of Bedford grape, is now held there in much estimation. 

 This vine was carried from the town in Pennsylvania, whose 

 name it bears, and is most probably the Alexander, and there- 

 fore not equal to many others of our natives. 



The following remarks are from the pen of Professor Nuttall of 



Harvard University. 



" It is probable that hybrids betwixt the European Vine, 

 (Vitis viniferd) and those of the United States, would better 

 answer the variable climates of North America, than the un- 

 acclimated vine of Europe. When a portion of the same in- 

 dustry shall have been bestowed upon the cultivation of the 

 native vines of America, which has for so many ages and by 

 so many nations, been devoted to the amelioration of Vitis 

 vinifera, we cannot imagine that the citizens of the United 

 States will be longer indebted to Europe for the luxury of wine. 

 It is not however in the wilds of uncultivated nature that we 

 are to obtain vines worthy of cultivation, were this the case, 

 Europe would to the present have known no other Malus than 

 the worthless austere crab, in place of the finest apple ; no 

 other Pyrus than the acerb and inedible Pyraster or stone 

 Pear, from which cultivation has obtained all the other va- 

 rieties. It is from seed that new and valuable varieties are in- 

 variably to be obtained. There is however at the present time, 

 a variety of one of the native species cultivated under the name 

 of " Eland's grape," a hybrid no way in my opinion inferior 

 to some of the best European grapes." 



