1869.] REPORT ON GRAPES AND OTHER FRUITS. 11 



REPORT ON GRAPES AND OTHER FRUITS. 



Edwin Conant, Chairman; James Green-, jr., Samdel V. Stone, T. M. 

 Lamb, John C. Ripley, Horatio Phelps, of Worcester, Paul Whitin, of 

 Whitinsville, F. M. Marble, of Grafton, and George Cruikshank, of North- 

 bridge. 



The committee find twenty six contributors of the delightful aud princely 

 fruit, the grape, and of plates the number is less than legion, while of varieties 

 it is more. They are not only domestic, but they come to us from the conti- 

 nents and islands of the Old World. As dessert fruits no one questions their 

 merits. Speculatists take opposite sides on the question of fermented wine being 

 known before the Deluge ; some affirming ^that Adam was acquainted with it, 

 and that Noah well knew its qualities, but was unexpectedly overtaken by its 

 quantity and strength. According to the Medical Faculty whom the committee 

 consulted, Noah's case was only that of natural reaction from a habit of too 

 much water. It can hardly be doubted that he planted a strong vineyard. 

 Corn, wine, and oil were anciently types of physical, as they were of spiritual 

 blessings. Of Bacchus, in his character of a civilizer, a poet says — 



" It was a bright, immortal head 

 They crowned with the blood-red grape." 



Another quotation is apt for festive meetings of old-time friends. 



" To-night, the palest wave we sip, 



Rich as the priceless draught shall be 

 That wet the .bride of Cana's lip, — 

 The wedding wine of Gallilee ! " 



Grapes are rather apt to be sour when when inaccessible, and their fermented 

 juice, like steam, has been hostile to some people since Noah, for want of an 

 efficient regulator. 



Of Coriolanus, who didn't care for the votes of the people, it was said — 



'• The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes." 



lago said sneeringly of Desdemona, " The wine she drinks is made of grapes ; " 

 a fact creditable to the taste of that pattern lady, and not admitting any con- 

 troversy between allowed cider and prohibited lager, nor treated in the non- 

 committal resolution of a State convention. Desdemona did not drink the 

 distilled gall of bitterness which afflicts some people more modern, of whom 

 lago and a tempter who went into an exceeding high mountain one day, are 

 the leading prototypes. 



A truce to pleasantries. Somebody says that " business is business;" the 

 committee could not find the original author of that saying, and they don't 

 mean to be committed to the universality of its truth, but swallow it with a 

 mental reservation, as the truly loyal say that some people do who take the 

 iron-clad oath. And now they proceed to the awards : 



