During 1SS7 to 1892 the author supplied complete sets of botanical specimens of American 

 Grapes, arranged according to his plan of classification, to the herbariums of various educational 

 institutions, one going to the School of Viticulture, Montpellier, France; one each to Harvard 

 Universit}', Cornell University, Columbia University, Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, the 

 National Herbarium in National Museum, and one to the herbarium in the Division of Botany, 

 Department of Agriculture. To Dr. Vasey, Botanist of the Department of Agriculture, eleven 

 sets were supplied. These were placed in as many agricultural colleges. These sets contained 

 young and mature wood, leaves, flowers and fruit of each American species. 



Sets of photographs, life size, of wood, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds of all American species 

 have been supplied to about a dozen colleges and botanists in the United States and Europe. 



A large number of complete sets of live plants of all species of American grapes have been 

 supplied to state experiment stations and individuals in the United States and Europe. 



To stimulate experimentation, over 1000 packets of hybridized grape seeds of select varieties 

 were distributed, gratis, to some 500 grape-growers, located in all parts of the Union. 



In 1889, the Division of Pomology published its Bulletin No. 3, containing an outline skeleton 

 of my classification of grapes, as an announcement of an exhaustive monograph of American 

 grapes, which the Secretary of Agriculture, through the Pomologist, H. E. Van Deman, engaged 

 me to prepare. The manuscript for this monograph, and accurate life-size colored plates of all 

 our native grape species, were prepared and delivered, but from lack of sufficient appropriation 

 by Congress the work remains unpublished. 



In 1893, in the Horticultural Building of the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, the writer 

 exhibited all American and most Asiatic species of grapes, represented by growing plants, by 

 roots preserving natural appearance in liquid, by sections of wood from aged and young growth, 

 by pressed leaves, in all stages of development, by flowers, by clusters of ripe fruit in plates, and 

 preserved in liquid in glass jars, by seeds, and by life-size photographs of wood, leaves, flowers, 

 fruit and seeds, all labeled with their common and technical names, and presented in classified 

 arrangement according to the plans shown in Plate I. In addition to this, over 150 old and neW 

 varieties, representing all manner of crossed and hybrid combinations, were shown in ripe clusters 

 on plates for three months in succession. 



This exhibit was the most complete botanical display of the grape genus ever made. It was 

 presented to the Department of Agriculture, and since the Exposition all its durable parts have 

 been mounted in the Pomological Division, Department of Agriculture, in Washington, D. C. 



The Chief Work 



All this botanical and cultural study was only preliminary to the author's chief work with 

 grapes, which has been to collect the best wild and cultivated varieties, to test them side by side, 

 and intermingle them by crossing and hybridizing, to produce new varieties of best possible 

 qualities, in the endeavor to fill out the ideal list of varieties as presented hereafter and to provide 

 the best possible resistant graft stocks upon which to graft Vinifera varieties. 



For this undertaking all the details of the science and art "of hybridization have been studied, 

 and the different methods put into practice, as amplified to some extent in other p<trts of this 

 work. 



Basis of Improvement of American Grapes 



It was not only necessary to know the general botany of grapes, but as well what was desir- 

 able and undesirable in varieties in cultivation, and how much of the season, and market demand 

 they covered, so as to direct effort to the best advantage in creating varieties to fill up the vacancies. 



An Ideal List, or Succession of Varieties 



To keep the object of the work clearly in view, an ideal succession of varieties was constructed 

 which might in time be filled with excellent and profitable kinds. 



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