THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 207 



in excellence, is a good eating grape, or for wine, as soon 

 as it changes to a dark purple. 



". Grapes for Cultivation at the South. — Of one hun- 

 dred and fifty varieties of grapes, I have not more than 

 about twenty I consider good and unexceptionable in all 

 respects, for American culture. My foreign grapes, 

 after trial, I cut down as worthless, and of some, even 

 noted natives, I cut down all but a few, and grafted other 

 kinds upon their stocks. Of the Catawba, Isabella, 

 Ilerbemont's Madeira, and the Ohio, or Segar Box, and 

 others, I retained a few specimens for their fruit, when 

 any happened not to rot, which is about one season in 

 three, with me ; though I see, from the Patent Office re- 

 port, that the Isabella and Catawba are not so prone to 

 rot in the state of Ohio, and that, more northerly, they 

 are still less prone. The rot is a grand diflSculty at the 

 south, owing, I suppose, to the heat of the climate, and 

 the vines prone to it, are worse, in this respect, by age. 

 This season has been uncom.monlj'- fatal to the kinds in 

 question. Till a few days past, we have had rain con- 

 tinued for two weeks ; even some grapes in the woods 

 rotted. But, to close this essay, I will briefly report 

 those varieties, in my vineyards, rotting and not rotting. 

 The Isabella, Catawba, Herbemont's Madeira, Long- 

 worth's Ohio, Elsinburgh, Norton's Large Purple, and a 

 number of other kinds, pretty much all rotted, somp 

 others about half The Vine Arbor, Somerville, my 

 Halifax Seedling, (from the seed of the Halifax, a most 

 excellent grape,) Brinkleyville, and a few others ; some 

 few rotted on part of the vines. The kinds least prone 

 to rot, are Scuppernong, "Weller's Halifax, Norton's Vir- 



