STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. IQl 



culture, — which motion was adopted, and the order accordingly- 

 laid on the table. 



It was voted to raise a committee of three to prepare and report 

 at the next annual meeting, a catalogue of fruits suitable for culti- 

 vation in Maine; and Messrs. Z. A. Gilbert, of East Turner; S. 

 L. Goodale, of Saco; and S. F. Perley, of Naples, were appointed 

 as said committee. 



Adjourned. 



AETERXOON SESSION. 

 The Convention re-assembled at 2 p. m., the Vice President in 

 the chair. 



The subject announced for this afternoon was Grape Culture, 

 and was opened by Dr. J. C. Weston, of Bangor. Corresponding 

 Secretary of the Society, who addressed the Convention as follows, 

 illustrating his remarks by the exhibition of samples of well grown 

 and thoroughly ripened canes cut from his own vines : 



THE CULTIVATIOX OF THE GRATE. 



BY DR. J. C. WESTOX. 



I. Grapes in Open Culture. — As far as we can penetrate the dim 

 vista of the past, the grape-vine existed. It appears to have been 

 coeval with the human race. It originated in Asia, and accom- 

 panied man in all his wanderings in Europe and Africa. Its deli- 

 cious fruit has always been used to refresh and invigorate, and 

 the fermented juice of the grape to cheer and exhilarate. 



The same variety, the Vitis Vinifera, which had been successfully 

 cultivated from the remotest antiquity on the eastern continent, 

 was brought by the earliest immigrants to America, but it was 

 soon found by experience that it could not well flourish here, ex- 

 cept in certain favored localities, or under glass, where an arti- 

 ficial climate could be produced and maintained. The rapidly 

 varying temperature peculiar to the country, the excessive 

 changes from heat to cold, from dryness to moisture, and the 

 reverse, predispose to mildew and blight, and the rigor of our 

 winters often injures or destroys the exotic grape. Ilence it was 

 necessary to seek hardy varieties of the Vitis Labrusca family 

 which would better endure the vicissitudes of the climate. 



From the native stock, improved or ameliorated varieties of 

 earlier maturity and of great excellence have been obtained by 



