110 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



growth, three times more developed and higher than all the others of the same age. 

 The first plant produced fruit in 1889. Since, its fructification has been extremely- 

 prolific. In 1890 I planted rooted cuttings in the same spots where vines had died from 

 phylloxera. To-day (1899) these vines are extremely vigorous, and their fertility sur- 

 passes any other variety. Each vine produces from eighty to one hundred clusters of 

 medium size, and the stock is large. The bunches are of different sizes, similar to the 

 Pineaus, but the berries are not so tight together. The berries are spheric, longer, 

 black, with thin skin, the juice deep red and agreeable to the taste. At the nursery 

 the three-year-old plants have always produced from thirty to forty bunches, and those 

 of four years old from sixty to eighty. The wine is very red, and of good taste, and is 

 from ten to eleven per cent of alcohol. The Hybrid Franc is entirely phylloxera-proof, 

 as I have never been able to find any phylloxera on its roots. It deserves, therefore, 

 the first place at the top of the scale of resistants. Mildew, oidium, or anthracnose have 

 never attacked it. It seems at home in any kind of soil, and does well even in those 

 containing from thirty to forty per cent of lime carbonate. In swampy or damp soil it 

 grows rapidly. It is very hardy against heavy frosts, and if its first buds are damaged 

 by the frost, the second buds grow rapidly and give a fine crop. It roots very easily. 

 Any cutting of two or three buds planted in any soil of medium fertility, grows readily 

 and gives abundant roots. There is no plant in existence that can be propagated by 

 cutting as easily as the Hybrid Franc. It will grow under any kind of training, but 

 the best is long pruning. Such is the Hybrid Franc that I have studied with the 

 greatest care during nine years." 



After all these good words what can you do? Try and verify the facts instead of 

 condemning in advance because they are from a Frenchman. 



Resistant Stocks. — Of these, there seem to be but two prominently 

 before the public now — the Bourquiniana class (of which the Lenoir 

 is the most prominent representative) and the Rupestris, with its 

 improved varieties, Rupestris St. George and the Martin. The Riparia, 

 planted so largely in many places years ago, has failed lamentably in 

 dry soils and the interior hot valleys, while it still flourishes well when 

 planted in deep soils and under the influence of the moist air from the 

 bay or the sea. 



The Bourquiniana class has been traced back to Southern France by 

 Professor Munson, of Denison, Texas, who claims that the Huguenot 

 immigrants brought them to the Southern States one hundred and fifty 

 years ago. It comprises the Lenoir, Hubemont, Louisiana, and Cun- 

 ningham. Of the first, cions were sent by me from Missouri to the late 

 lamented H. W. Crabb in 1876, who was then in quest of a coloring 

 grape. It has withstood all the ravages of the phylloxera for the 

 last twenty years; is a splendid, strong, and upright grower, and 

 strikes its roots deep into the subsoil, withstanding drought remarkably 

 well, and also makes a good, very dark-colored wine; it takes the graft 

 readily. The other varieties are equally desirable for stocks. 



Rupestris. — This class are natives of the dry ridges of southwest 

 Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, also known as Bush or Sugar grape. 

 All of them have a tendency to root deeply and readily from cuttings, 

 and therefore are especially adapted to dry soils. The cuttings, origin- 

 ally taken from the woods, came from seedlings with all their natural 

 variations in growth and habit. Large quantities were shipped to 



