102 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
survive to mourn tlieir loss and to cherish the memory of these worthies as a 
precious possession. 
Respectfully submitted, 
P. J. BERCKMANS, 
ROBERT MANNING, 
THOMAS MEEHAN, 
J. VAN LINDLEY, 
W. H. RAGAN, 
Committee. 
The Committee’s report was adopted by a rising vote. 
A paper on “The Improvement of American Grapes,” prepared by Prof. 
S. A. Beach, of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, 
Geneva, N. Y., was submitted by its author, who suggested that, on account 
of the heat and the length of the session, the reading of the paper be dispensed 
with, as the paper could be read in the published proceedings. 
A motion by Prof. Beach to the above effect was agreed to. 
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE AMERICAN GRAPES. 
BY PROF. S. A. BEACH, N.‘ Y. STATE EXPERIMENT STATION, GENEVA, 
N. Y. 
The cultivation of American varieties of the grape, either for table use or 
for wine, is distinctively an American industry. American grape growers 
need fear no competition in this line. They have the whole field to them- 
selves. Their fruit finds no market outside of America because the foreigners 
prefer other grapes. Even in those portions of this continent where varieties 
of the old world .species, the vinifera, can readily be grown, the American 
varieties meet with little demand. Professor Wicks-on says that except for 
the production of resistant roots on which to graft vinifera varieties, the 
nursery trade in California in American vines, is almos't infinitestimal. Proba- 
bly less than one-tenth of one per cent of the vine acreage of California is 
devoted to American vines grown for fruit. A very few are grown for home 
use and for a very uncertain market demand. It is not a question of the 
ill adaptation of these grapes to local conditions, he says, but simply the 
fact that vinifera varieties are preferred for all purposes. 
BETTER MARKET GRAPES NEEDED. 
This may be an unwelcome truth to those who are interested in the native 
grapes, but being the truth it is best that it be frankly admitted. Two or 
more decades ago w T hen the interest in the progress of American grape culture 
was running high and much excitement still attended the introduction of new 
varieties, the statement before this Society that such fruit as that of Dela- 
ware or Iona, or the best of the American hybrids, is inferior for dessert 
purposes to vinifera grapes, doubtless would have been called heresy and 
aroused vigorous opposition. Although some of these varieties have now been 
in cultivation thirty, forty and even fifty years, yet alt the present time 
none but Americans eat American grapes. It is folly to expect to further 
the advancement of viticulture by closing the eyes to facts which are ap- 
