212 THE GKAPE CULTDEIST. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



DESCRIPTION OF VARIETIES. 



OUR nursery catalogues contain an almost endless list of 

 names of grapes, said by their producers to be different 

 varieties, but many of them are so nearly alike it would 

 be difficult for their most intimate acquaintances to point 

 out their differences. The wild vines of our forests, it is 

 true, are not all alike, but they are, with few exceptions, 

 so entirely wanting in all the qualities of a good grape as 

 to be unworthy of notice. The same is true of seedlings. 

 In a collection of a thousand, no two may be just alike 

 while all may be quite similar, and they may be inferior to 

 the parent and unworthy of cultivation. 



There are but very few native varieties^ of the grape that 

 are worth cultivating, and the best of these are compara- 

 tively little known. 



If a variety succeeds well in one place it is not certain 

 that it will do so in another, although those well acquainted 

 with the requirements of different kinds as to locations, 

 can usually judge very correctly. Neither can any correct 

 estimate of the real value of a variety be made from the 

 appearance of a single vine, because there may be circum- 

 stances influencing it that are not known, and it is only 

 when it has been distributed and fruited in different locali- 

 ties that its real value can be ascertained. I might name 

 several varieties that have, during the last ten years, been 

 sent out with high recommendations, that have proved to 

 be entirely worthless. In nearly every case the encomi- 

 ums were bestowed upon them from noticing the results 

 of a single vine, cultivated with the greatest care. In 

 some instances this vine was original, and in others an old 



