1872 The Western Pomologist and Gardener. ' 137 



E«8a)' on tlie Grape,— Important Considerations In Planting a Vineyard. 



Read before tbe Kaossa Stitto Bortlealtural Soeletf, at LawreDO«, D<3«ember 20tb, 1971. 



Bt the Associate Editor. 



^fr. President: — As we have been requested to read an essay on the grape before this 

 inteligent bod}' of Iiorticulturi.sts, with your permission and their patience, we shall 

 endeavor to do so ; but there has ali'fady been so much said and written upon this subject, 

 that we scarcely know what we can add to interest you, not because the subject is 

 exhausted, but from our inability to do it justice. Even if we had the ability, in a short 

 essay like this, we could not fully discuss it. We are well aware that we differ much 

 from some grape-growers, but in the opinion of the multitude we aught to gain 

 knowledge. 



The cultivation of the grape is among one of the most ancient arts known to mankind. 

 In every country adapted to its growth, it is coeval with the dawn of civilization. It is 

 a singular fact that it is said the first labor of Noah after the flood, was to plant a vine- 

 yard and make wine. (Genesis IX, 30.) 



With this great antiquity in the cultivation of the grape amongst the most highly 

 civilized nations, we would be led to infer that there would be nothing left for us to 

 do but to plant their varieties and follow their precepts. But this is not the case, for sad 

 experience has long since proven them a failure, with blasted prospects and disappointed 

 hopes. It has been the misfortune of the American grape-grower of imbibing too deeply 

 in ancient grape theories, which has led to this disappointment. He has not only brought 

 over with him their opinions and methods of cultivation, but also their species (iiitii 

 vinefera) and varieties, and has endeavored to cultivate them in an uncongenial soil and 

 climate, under conditions which even our native grapes will scarcely succeed. 



We have learned by experience, that, although the European grape is healthy in its 

 native home, in Asia, it will not succeed here unless under similar conditions of 

 temperature and moisture. It may appear to some unnecessary for us to say anything 

 upon the European grape and its cultivation. This might appear so if we were purely 

 Americanized; but this is not the case, for all of our hopes and aspirations in the suc- 

 cessful cultivation of the grape are based upon the success of the European grape in its 

 native home. Many of us have still a lingering hope that it may j-et be acclimated and 

 made to succeed with us. This belief has taken hold of the public mind with such enthu- 

 siasm that nearly all the new varieties offered, purport to be hybrids with the foreign 

 grape. 



That it is possible to produce a good grape by that means, we do not pretend to deny, 

 but that we can produce a good, healthy, hardy grape, adapted to our climate, we very 

 much doubt. And until the fact can first be shown that the offspring do not inherit the 

 peculiarities of their parents, we must discent from these views. It is strange that what 

 we believe and admit as a well established ph}-siological law in the animal race, we should 

 violate with impunity in the vegetable kingdom, and then hope for satisfactory results. 

 Dr. Hooker, of England, in his "Botanj- of the Antartic Voyage." says : "That all the 

 individuals of a species have been produced from one parent or pair, and that they retain 

 their distinctive,- specific characteristics. The most satisfactory proof we can adduce of 

 hybridization being powerless as an agent in producing species, however much it may 

 combine them, are the facts that no hybrid has ever afforded a efiaracter foreign to that of 

 its parents, and that hybrids are generally constitutionally weak." 



Having shown that the European grape is not adapted to this variable climite, and 

 neither is there any probability of us producing one by hybridizing our varieties with 

 it, we should therefore turn our attention to our native species, in hope of producing a 

 grape of good quality — health}' and hardy, adapted to our various wants, and worthy of 

 general cultivation. With all of our boasted numbers, we have yet but two which we 

 consider worthy of general cultivation. They are the Concord and Ive's Seedling. 

 It is very true, we have many which are of better quality, as the lona, Delaw-are, Alvey 

 and Herbemont, or adapted to special purposes, as the Catawba, Martha, Telegraph, 



