DISCUSSION OF PLANT INDUSTRIES 463 



kumquat, have peculiar!}- ^'aluable shipping qualities, ^\•hich 

 make it possible for these fruits to be shipped anywhere and 

 to be kept for ^ery long periods. 



428. The grapes. The fruit of the grape is known to ha\ e 

 been used by the earliest civilized peoples. From the wild 

 grapes, Avhich though sour are edible, more than a thousand 

 varieties have been developed. These differ in color, as white, 

 black, blue, or red ; and in texture, from the soft juicj- grapes 

 from which wine is made, to the more solid ones which are 

 dried m making raisins. The leadmg grape-producing states 

 are Xe^v York, Ohio, Michigan, and California. 



Perhaps the best-known and the most widely distributed 

 kind of cultivated grape that is native to the United States is 

 the Concord grape, which was discovered by Ephraim Bull at 

 Concord, ]\lassachusetts. Part of the original vme still grows 

 on the la^i-n of the old Ephraim Bull homestead. 



The European grapes, which form the basis of the ^'er^- large 

 and important wine industries of France, were developed out 

 of a different stock from that of the American cultivated 

 grapes. Since the Frencli grapes produced a quality of «ine 

 that differed from that made from the grapes of the United 

 States, European grapes were brought to this country. Then- 

 roots were soon attacked, and the plants -nell-nigh destroyed, 

 by a small parasitic insect kno^n as phylloxera (Sect. 343). 

 It was found, howe^•er, that the roots of the American grapes 

 were able to withstand attacks from phylloxera and were not 

 seriously affected by it. It \'\"as also found that when Euro- 

 pean grapes were brought to this country and grafted upon 

 American stock, the quality of the European fruit might be 

 secured without the accompanying dangers from the insect. 

 But A'shen grape growers transplanted American grapes mto 

 Europe the phylloxera was also transferred, and soon the na- 

 tive grapes of Europe were attacked and serious damage was 

 done in the vineyards of France. In order to protect their 

 vmeyards many FVench grape gro\\'ers adopted the practice 

 of planting American plants and then grafting their own 



