66 Vineyard Culture, 



or, better still, by grafting some of their shoots on old 

 plants. 



[For the reasons presented by the author, propagation by 

 seedlings, will never be practiced merely for the multipli- 

 cation of plants ; but the number of good varieties thus pro- 

 duced in this country, would make it appear that the tendency 

 to run back to the wild characters was not so great with 

 our vines as with those of the species Fitis vinifera of Europe. 

 Nor are we obliged to wait so long a time for our vines to 

 fruit, since many of our seedlings have given satisfactory evi- 

 dence of their promising qualities, or otherwise, in the third 

 year. In a collection of seedlings, a good many may be re- 

 jected the first or second season, if we allow ourselves to be 

 guided by the appearance of the vine and its foliage, and an 

 expert may be safe in depending upon these criteria. 



The late Mr. N. Longworth, of Cincinnati, was a most in- 

 defatigable seed-planter, and he produced a great number of 

 seedling grape-vines, some of which will yet make their mark. 

 His seeds were taken almost at random, from any good grapes. 

 He annually rejected great nurhbers of plants, which he 

 thought were showing indications of wildness, that induced 

 him to conclude they were worthless. 



Mr. John Fiske Allen, and Mr. E. S. Rogers, of the vicin- 

 ity of Boston ; and Mr. Peter Raabe, of Philadelphia, and 

 others, have made systematic attempts to improve the native 

 grape, by fertilizing with the pollen of choice foreign varieties. 

 Their trials have been attended with more or less success, and 

 many others have been encouraged to take up the subject of 

 cross-fertilization, and to repeat these experiments. A doubt 

 has existed in the minds of some of our most intelligent pom- 

 ologists, whether all the results were really true hybrids, and 

 this is based upon the observation that one set of plants was so 

 decidedly foreign in appearance, while another set should show 

 .60 little change in the characters of the native parent. This 



