Planting. 



GRAPE MANUAL. 



Seed Culture. 31 



scarcely one, perhaps, be an improvement on 

 the cultivated parent. 



The layer or the cutting of a grape-vine will, 

 on the contrary, exactly reproduce the parent 

 vine from which it was taken, and even any 

 transplanting of the same, into a widely differ- 

 ent locality, cannot change it. The differences 

 in soil and climate may improve or impair the 

 vigor of the vine and its foliage, the size and 

 quality of its fruit ; in other words, they may 

 be more or less favorable to the development 

 of its inherent qualities, to the good or ill suc- 

 cess of the variety ; but they will never materi- 

 ally change it in appearance, form, taste, color 

 much less in its botanical characteristics.* The 

 practical grape-grower, therefore, who desires 

 to plant certain varieties, all fruit-bearing, will 

 not plant seeds, nor young plants raised from 

 seeds although some theorists pretend that 

 the long continued propagation and culture of 

 the grape from the wood was the cause of its 

 recent failures to withstand diseases, insects, 

 and other parasites. Careful and unprej udiced 

 investigation and reasoning as well as practical 

 experiments have fully established the facts : 

 that seedlings resist no more successfully than 

 plants from cuttings, nor are they much less 

 sensitive to the vicissitudes of climate ; and that 

 the long continued culture and propagation 

 from wood has nothing to do with the greater 

 or less resistance to diseases, nor has their cel- 

 lular tissue been softened thereby. 



For practical grape culture we should use 

 none but the best rooted plants of those kinds 

 which we wish to produce. Some vintners, from 

 supposed economy, use only cuttings to plant 

 their vineyards, placing two cuttings where 

 one vine is to grow ; but the result generally is 

 unsatisfactory, especially with American va- 

 rieties, most of which do not root as easily as 

 those of the European Vinifera class, and make 

 much replanting necessary ; and where both 

 cuttings do grow, one must be pulled out. 

 Those vintners would do better, by far, by 

 first growing their cuttings one or two years in 

 nursery rows, and afterwards transplanting 

 the best of them to their intended vineyard. 



But if we desire to obtain NEW varieties we 

 must plant seed. This is a far more uncertain, 



* The erroneous opinion that a grape transplanted 

 to other countries may become entirely changed by in- 

 fluences of climate and soil was often supported by errors 

 or deceptions in transplanting a vine or culling, not true 

 to name. Thus the famous Tokay grape was supposed to 

 have been transplanted to the Rhine 150 years ag_o, and, 

 as it was there found to be a miserable grape, quite dif- 

 ferent from the noble Tokay, this was ascribed to the 

 influence of the different soil. But lately it has been 

 discovered that the grape transplanted from Tokay (in 

 Hungary), and known in Germany under the nickname 

 " Putzsi'here" (Snuffers), is the same grape which also 

 grows at Tokay and is known there under the name 

 " Qyonyszulo" (white pearl) , and that it is there also of 

 poor quality, and is not the excellent variety "Prumtnt" 

 of which the celebrated Tokay wine is made. 



slow and difficult operation than most people 

 imagine, and but very few have been successful 

 in it. Just as some careful breeders of animals 

 have succeeded in raising improved kinds, on 

 which they engrafted certain qualities by cross- 

 ing, so have horticulturists endeavored to reach 

 the same end by hybridizing the best varieties 

 of grapes and planting their seeds, having due 

 regard to tb.e characteristics of the parents 

 from which they breed. (See "Hybrids, "p. 28.) 



But of late still another very important func- 

 tion has been assigned to seed planting, name- 

 ly, to produce in Europe (especially where the 

 import of our cuttings and rooted plants has 

 been prohibited) American vines, which resist 

 the Phylloxera, as grafting stocks. For, how- 

 ever great the tendency to variation is in seed- 

 lings, still, under all circumstances and changes 

 of soil and climate, they retain the Phylloxera- 

 resisting root as well as other botanical charac- 

 teristics of their parents.* During the last few 

 years w'e have furnished several thousands of 

 pounds of grape-seed to Austria, Italy, Spain, 

 and Portugal. The reports of their germina- 

 tion were generally favorable, while seeds sent 

 by others mostly failed. The following report 

 of v. Babo, kindly furnished us this spring 

 (1883) is certainly both reliable and interesting 

 in this respect : " Of the grape-seeds received 

 from you last year, the Riparia sprouted best ; 

 so well, indeed, that we can scarcely manage 

 the innumerable small seedlings. All the other 

 seedlings (from cultivated sorts) show great 

 variety in fruit, color, foliage, &c. Most varia- 

 ble are those from Taylor seed ; from the 2,500 

 bearing vines raised from seed of this one va- 

 riety, a hundred distinct sorts can easily be 

 selected. The young plants from Riparia seed 

 seem not to vary much, as we can find but very 

 little essential difference in their foliage." 



We do not intend here to discuss the vari- 

 ous modes of multiplication or propagation of 

 grape-vinus from cuttings, layers or single eyes 

 (buds), still less the methods of producing new 

 varieties from seed and of hybridizing, as this 

 would far exceed the scope of this brief manual, 

 nor do we desire to say whether plants grown 

 from cuttings, from single eyes or from layers, 

 are preferable. Propagators and nurserymen 

 are not considered disinterested, impartial 

 judges on this question. But we may reasona- 

 bly suppose that those who read this catalogue 

 are either our customers or desire to purchase 

 rooted vines from us, and want to get the best 

 plants. Vines raised from layers were in for- 

 mer years held to be superior, and are still pre- 



*For this purpose it is best to use the seed of the wild 

 grape, especially of JEstivalis and of Riparia ; the seed of 

 hybrids should not be used. 



