76 FRUIT GARDEN. 
the celebrated Arbois wine, which partakes slightly of 
the Champagne character, would compete with our Ca- 
tawha. 
“Tf we intend cultivating the grape for wine, we must 
rely on our native grapes, and new varieties raised from 
their seed. If I could get my lease of life renewed for 
twenty or thirty years, I would devote my attention to the 
subject, and I would cross our best native varieties with the 
best table and wine grapes of Europe. We live ina great 
age. Discoveries are daily made that confound us, and we 
know not where we shall stop. Weare told of experiments 
in mesmerism, as wonderful as the grinding-over system 
would be; but I fear the discovery will not be brought to 
perfection in time to answer my purpose, and I must leave 
the subject with the young generation. 
“T have heretofore wanted faith in the doctrine of 
French horticulturists, that to improve your stock of pears 
you must not select the seed of the finest fruit, but of the 
natural choke pear. I am half converted to their views. 
The Catawba is clearly derived from the common Fox grape. 
In raising from its seed, even white ones are produced, but 
I have not seen one equal to the parent plant, and in all 
the white down on the under side of the leaf, and the 
hairs on the stalk, common to the wild Fox grape, are 
abundant.” 
The same gentleman, in pointing out the evils of follow- 
ing practices in the United States which are highly advan- 
tageous in other countries, observes :— 
“ Tn some parts of Europe, where their summers are cool, 
they find it necessary to shorten the leading branches in- 
tended to produce the next year’s crop, and thin out the 
leaves, and head in the short branches, and fully expose the 
fruit to the sun and air to insure itsripening. This method 
