In the first and better sense we would have a true Labrusca breed, and many other pure 

 Labrusca breeds distinct from this could be established, by starting vnth another set of wild or 

 distinct varieties. The second would be a pure Concord breed. 



But a better breed still, for grapes, it seems, may be made by starting with the best of 

 several species, and then by hybridizing and crossing among these, to reach certain ideals. This 

 very thing in a manner has gradually taken place among several species of Old World grapes, 

 giving the complex Vinifera species in cultivation. This is more a breed of grapes than a species. 

 But it is not strictly thorobred. 



Selecting Parent Varieties 



At first thought, it seems a very simple and easy election to make, but when one learns 

 by sad and expensive experience, involving years of nursing and solicitude, that he has been 

 breeding weakness and producing only food which disease will consume, by starting with 

 inherently weak, non-resistant parents, he becomes very cautious in undertaking to originate 

 more varieties. Better to study first the work of others who have made known the errors which 

 lead to failure. 



Let a variety be taken for parent, no matter how beautiful and fine in quality of fruit, 

 which is puny, easily hurt by climatic changes and extremes, a prey of insect and fungus diseases, 

 dropping easily from cluster, skin easily cracking, non-productive, etc., and its progeny will 

 bring forth its weaknesses to the third, fourth and even to the tenth generation. 



By hybridizing with varieties, very strong in points where the other parents are weak, the 

 maladies can be somewhat counteracted, and much more rapidly reduced than by simply selecting 

 the best, generation after generation, of pure seedlings. 



How much more satisfactory, more economical of time, more profitable to originator and 

 planter, would it be to have the parentag-e on both sides of the very best in constitution and 

 productiveness as well as in quality! 



Hunting Good Wild Grapes for Parent Vines 



Bordering Red River, several rniles wide, both in Texas and Oklahoma, on the sandy 

 uplands, frorn Texarkana to above Henrietta, before the lands were so much cleared and 

 browsed by cattle, innumerable Post-Oak grapes grew, when the writer came to Texas thirty- 

 one years ago, and a good many vines yet are to be found, especially on the Oklahoma side. It 

 was my delight for many years to traverse these woods, on horseback, in grape ripening time, 

 •where little of the country was fenced, seeking and tasting the fruit of many thousands of vines; 

 hoping, perchance, to find some good enough to move into- my vineyards to use as parents in 

 hybridizing. Hundreds of miles of such travel in this Red River belt only whetted my desire 

 to hunt in others, and I gratified it. I hunted wild grapes about Tyler, Troupe, Jefferson, Pales^ 

 tine, Crockett, and in the counties of Gonzales, Caldwell, McLennan, Bell, Williamson, Burnet, 

 Travis, Blanco, Kerr, Gillespie, Llano, Lampasas, San Saba, Del Rio, Jeff Davis, Donley, 

 Wilbarger, Clay, Montague, Cooke, Denton, Tarrant, Dallas and others, and much in other 

 States. The varieties found in these hunts considered worthy to begin with as parents for table 

 and market grapes did not exceed a score. With these and others found by friends and sent 

 me, in connection with the best introduced varieties, afford a very ample collection from which 

 to choose parents of varieties for any purpose, soil or climate. However, all the good wild grapes 

 have not yet been found, and other experimenters may, as we have, find much recreation, if 

 not money, in hunting for them. 



Of the writer's collected varieties, only the cream for special purposes and regions are used, 

 and yet there is room for combinations enough to require the full life of dozens of persons to 

 make, without exhausting the materials. 



—115— 



