472 AMERICAN GRAPE CULTURE. 



which should properly test new fruits in refer- 

 ence to their excellence, healthiness, and hardi- 

 ness, and indorse them accordingly. This duty, 

 honestly performed, would have been of incal- 

 culable service to the public, and made the 

 society a great benefactor to the country ; but 

 it has been overlooked, and the public must 

 still continue to do its own testing unaided. 

 That the progress of fruit culture is greatly 

 retarded from a want of this kind can not be 

 doubted; but there is no present help for it. 

 The grape-grower, therefore, in common with 

 other fruit-growers, must test for himself such 

 new varieties as may from time to time appear. 

 In regard to those already before the public, he 

 must select some competent guide in whom he 

 may have confidence, and not allow himself to 

 be bewildered and led astray by a multitude of 

 advisers. The intelligent amateur may try all 

 things, if he can afford it, with profit to himself 

 and the public ; but the vineyardist, who grows 

 largely, will find his greatest profit ultimately 

 to consist in growing such kinds only as are 

 known to possess excellence of a high standard, 

 and eschewing all others; he should not, in- 

 deed, waste his time in even testing any that he 

 has not good reason to believe possess such ex- 



