290 



Garden and Forest. 



[June ii, 1890. 



certain reward for their labors. The plan of a National 

 Plant Register, as developed by Mr. A. L. Bancroft, of San 

 Francisco, was considered too cumbersome, but some 

 mode of registering new plants seemed desirable and a 

 committee was appointed to consider the subject. Some 

 of the members explained that they already used trade- 

 marks under existing laws, and that this practice protected 

 them to a great extent. 



We give abstracts of some of the addresses, and these 

 will be continued next week. 



GRAPES AS AFFECTED BY CLIMATE AND SITUATION. 



This was the subject of a paper by Mr. George W.Campbell, 

 of Delaware, Ohio, well known as the introducer of the Dela- 

 ware Grape. The greater portion of the essay is herewith given. 



The widely differing opinions upon the character and value 

 of our most popular Grapes seem at first sight unaccountable. 

 And although much may be due to the diversities of individ- 

 ual taste, the different estimates upon many of our Grapes 

 from different sections of the country can hardly be satisfac- 

 torily referred to this cause alone. I have in mind the con- 

 flicting reports which I have seen upon the southern seedlings 

 of the Riparia class — mostly from the Taylor and Elvira — 

 which was introduced from Missouri with high commenda- 

 tion. Also upon the so-called hybrid varieties of Messrs. 

 Rogers, Ricketts, Moore and others. I may also include 

 special varieties of more recent date; notably Niagara, Empire 

 State and Pocklington; as well as Brighton, Eaton, Woodruff 

 Red, to say nothing of many more of less prominence. 



Within my own experience, all the Riparia seedlings, such 

 as Elvira, Missouri Riesling, Grein's Golden, and several 

 others known by numbers, with Faith, Amber and Noah, have 

 failed, in my locality, to meet expectations. While their habits 

 of growth, hardiness, health and productiveness are generally 

 good, they are decidedly wanting in the quality to render them 

 acceptable for general use. Still, I do not feel warranted in 

 saying that because this is my experience the same varieties 

 may not be, in their native home, under the more genial influ- 

 ences of a southern sun, all that their introducers claimed, 

 and valuahle acquisitions to their list of native Grapes. 



The various reports which we have of the Pocklington, Em- 

 pire State and Niagara indicate to me simply this — that in 

 some places and under favorable circumstances they are suc- 

 cessfully grown and valuable — while in others, to which they 

 are not adapted, or from some unfortunate surroundings, they 

 are not. During the past season, in my reading of one day, I 

 saw reports upon the Pocklington from two different sources 

 — one praising it as a Grape of remarkable excellence, the 

 other finding it so poor that he wanted to prosecute the nurs- 

 eryman who sold it to him for a fraud. 



Nearly as diverse have been the reports upon the Empire 

 State. In some places it has apparently sustained the high 

 character claimed by its introducers, in others it is reported to 

 have failed both in the health and hardiness of the vine and in 

 the quality of its fruit. In my locality the Empire State has 

 been healthy in foliage, vigorous in growth, and — excepting 

 in the past season, when it failed to ripen perfectly — the finest in 

 quality and flavor of any white Grape I grow. In this instance 

 the vines were probably allowed to overbear, and a cool, 

 rainy autumn prevented their maturity. 



The Niagara has sustained itself fairly well— though it will 

 not endure our severe winters without protection. It is not as 

 early as was represented — unless it is gathered long before it is 

 ripe and while it is both immature and foxy — but if left upon 

 the vine until well ripened it is a really good grape, retaining 

 but little of the foxy taste or odor. My experience with the 

 Niagara indicates that in localities to which it is adapted it 

 will prove a valuable and profitable variety. The same re- 

 marks will apply to the Woodruff Red, except that the latter 

 has proven, so far as tested, healthy in fruit and foliage, and 

 entirely hardy in our severest winters. I still regard the 

 Woodruff as probably the most promising red Grape for gen- 

 eral planting yet introduced. 



Of Mr. Rogers' many varieties, I will mention but one as 

 bearing upon the points I wish to illustrate. His Number 

 One or Goethe was introduced as a light or amber-colored 

 Grape ; and in Massachusetts, I presume, it rarely attains a 

 deeper color. At Delaware, where I have grown it for more 

 than thirty years, it sometimes obtains a light red or pink 

 shade; but was always flavorless and insipid, with the excep- 

 tion of a single instance, when the autumn was unusually 

 warm, and the ripening season prolonged until about the mid- 

 dle of October. It then attained a color as dark as the Dela- 

 ware and a high flavor and good quality hitherto unknown, 



thus showing that farther south, where the skies are brighter 

 and the seasons longer, it might be a valuable Grape. This, I 

 believe, is just what many of our southern growers And it ; 

 and the Elvira, with its kindred varieties and seedlings, are no 

 doubt equally improved under the same favorable conditions. 



Mr. Ricketts' Grapes, although many of them, as grown and 

 exhibited by himself, were of great beauty and excellence, 

 have not proven generally successful, and the most of them, 

 I think, can only be grown to perfection by special care or in 

 very favorable situations. The Jefferson, has been with me 

 one of the most successful, and among the best flavored, 

 though sometimes rather tardy in ripening. John Snider, one 

 of the oldest Grape-growers in southern Ohio, at Lancaster, 

 gives the Jefferson the position of "the finest grape on the 

 American Continent." But Secretary Williams, of New Jersey, 

 finds the Jefferson unsatisfactory and of little or no value. 



The Brighton Grape is deservedly popular in many places, 

 but it often fails in productiveness. This must always con- 

 tinue, for the cause is found in its imperfect blossom, with 

 short filaments and reflexed stamens. In favorable seasons, 

 with bright and mild weather during the period of inflor- 

 escence, the pollen seems sufficient to fertilize and produce 

 perfect fruit. But if cold and rainy weather prevails at this 

 period the grapes fail to set, and few and imperfect clusters 

 are the result. Some of the Rogers' Hybrids and the newly- 

 introduced Moyer Grape are in the same class. 



Most persons who plant a large number of different kinds of 

 Grapes come to the conclusion that we have too many varie- 

 ties. This is doubtless true as applied to any one locality ; 

 but the very kinds that do not succeed in that particular situa- 

 tion may be both successful and valuable in other places 

 which are suited to their special requirements. Many of us 

 have doubtless observed that occasionally, when we have 

 pleasant and sunny weather extending late into autumn with- 

 out unseasonable frosts or cold rains, some of the Grapes of 

 southern origin, such as Catawba and Herbemont, and even 

 our northern Clinton and Zoe, become rich and high flavored 

 with a sweetness and refreshing sprightliness which are only 

 attained in our climate in exceptionally favorable seasons, or 

 on southern walls, or in sheltered and protected situations 

 where they have artificially the climate and the surroundings 

 which their origin and their nature require. The inference 

 here is plain that in other places where such favorable condi- 

 tions exist naturally the same happy results will as naturally 

 follow. 



I have probably said enough to indicate the point I wish to 

 make : that success in Grape culture requires that varieties 

 should be selected which are specially adapted to the locality 

 where they are grown; and that because a Grape does not suc- 

 ceed in one section, it is by no means certain that it may not 

 be both successful and valuable in another to which it is fitted 

 naturally. I regard this matter of adaptation as one of the 

 most important to be considered by the practical Grape-grower. 



The area of adaptation is evidently much wider for some va- 

 rieties than others. In our section of country the Labrusca type — 

 including Concord, Worden, Moore's Early, Ives, Lady Martha 

 and Woodruff — will probably be found more generally suc- 

 cessful than any other class ; but there are, doubtless, in some 

 portions of the south, other varieties which are better adapted 

 to their soil and climate than any of these. The Delaware 

 Grape would probably be found adapted to as large an area as 

 any other in cultivation, except for its unfortunate liability to 

 mildew of the foliage ; and I am not without hope that the use 

 of the sulphate of copper remedies may so far overcome this 

 difficulty as to permit the successful growing of this valuable 

 variety to an extent even beyond that of the Concord by reason 

 of its constitutional resistance to the attacks of Grape-rot. 



I regard as of the greatest importance the use of these re- 

 cently discovered remedies against the various maladies which 

 have been so prevalent and so discouraging to Grape-growers. 

 I believe that their general adoption and general use will not 

 only greatly enlarge the area of successful Grape-growing, but 

 will also enable us to grow profitably many of the finer and 

 partially tender varieties in sections where it would be impos- 

 sible without them. 



SUCCESS WITH PEACHES. 



Mr. J. H. Hale gave his experience in growing Peaches 

 north of what is generally considered the Peach region — his 

 home being in central Connecticut. He had observed that 

 on high hills seedling Peach-trees lived and flourished, while 

 trees in the valleys, which were cultivated, almost invariably, 

 were killed in the winter or had their buds killed so as to de- 

 stroy all hope of fruit. He, therefore, began an experiment in 

 a small way, and planted some peach-pits from Tennessee. 



