CHAPTER XV. 

 THE GRAPE. 



AiiERiCA has about twenty species of native wild grapes. 

 A few of this number have been fully tested under cultivation. 

 There is practically no part of North America without some 

 native species. In many sections these wild species are im- 

 portant fruits and are the parents of many of our commercial 

 varieties. 



The two great classes of grapes grown in this country 

 are the American species or the labrusca grapes, of which 

 the Concord, the Delaware and the Niagara are common 

 examples, and the European or vinifera varieties, such as the 

 Malaga, Tokay and Thompson Seedless, which are confined 

 to the warmer Pacific coast region. The grapes grown east 

 of the Rocky Mountains are practically all improved native 

 species, but west of the mountains along the Pacific coast the 

 European species are the grapes which are largely grown. 



The grape is of very easy culture and brings almost certain 

 reward for the care and the attention which is given to it. 



Propagation. — The grape is propagated by seed, hard-wood 

 cuttings, layering and in some regions by grafting. Grafting 

 is most often done in California, where the European varieties 

 are worked on the American roots, in order to avoid the loss 

 due to an insect known as the phylloxera. 



The grapes propagated by seed are used either as stocks on 

 which to graft known sorts or to obtain new varieties. The 

 seed should be sown, as soon as it is gathered, in rich soil, 

 to a depth of | of an inch, and protected by a mulch during 

 the winter. Where the seed is grown in a haphazard way there 

 is very little chance of ever producing fruit of any value. 

 The intelligent hybridizing or the crossing of two staple 

 varieties of known worth is a much better way of securing 

 new varieties of value. 



