TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION. 
103 
parent to unprejudiced observers. A taste for peculiar flavors and qualities 
in fruits, as in other articles of diet, is frequently developed by cultivation, 
and often unconsciously. It is not surprising that those who have been ac- 
customed to American grapes from childhood should really prefer them to 
■vinifera sorts. It must be admitted, however, that the outside wmrld in 
general prefers the latter. The Californians turn from the American to the 
European varieties where both are to be had. The efforts which have been 
made to find a market for American grapes on the other side of the Atlantic 
have thus far failed. These facts have an important bearing on the develop- 
ment of viticulture and its associated industries in that vast region where 
only American vines succeed, a region extending from Canada to Mexico and 
from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. W T ithin its limits the vine acreage 
is now determined by the demand for the fruit for home consumption, and 
it must continue to be so until American varieties are sufficiently improved to 
make them acceptable in foreign markets. 
THE DEVELOPMENT OP GRAPE CULTURE IN EASTERN AMERICA. 
From the earliest settlement of the country grape growing has from 
time to time received some attention. Along the coast from Massachusetts 
to Florida and at various interior locations, many efforts have been made 
to grow vinifera varieties. None of these have thus far been permanently 
successful. Early in the present century two varieties of native grapes of the 
Labrusea species having fruit of purer flavor and better quality than the 
typical Labruscas, were found as chance seedlings and introduced into 
cultivation. These proved so desirable that they gradually became widely 
disseminated, and both of them are still handled by nurserymen and grown to 
some extent in commercial vineyards. One, the Catawba, is said to have been 
found wild in the woods of Western North Carolina. The other, the Isabella, 
is said to have originated in South Carolina. At the time this Society was 
organized, fifty years ago, these two grapes were the leading cultivated 
American varieties. 
AMERICAN VITICULTURE FIFTY YEARS AGO. 
The principal vineyards of the country at that time were near Cincinnati, 
■Ohio. These were planted chiefly to Catawba. They comprised several hun- 
dred acres. A small acreage in the vicinity of New York and Philadelphia 
was devoted mostly to furnishing table grapes for those cities. There were 
practically no vineyards along the Hudson River. In the interior lake region 
of Western New York grape culture had not yet spread beyond the boundaries 
of the gardens. In most of the markets of the country American grapes were 
rarely seen, and the vinifera kinds, being either imported or grown under 
glass, were a luxury beyond the reach of the common people. Although 
many native grapes had from time to time been cultivated in a limited way, 
the list of really desirable kinds, especially for the north, was very small. In 
many places Catawba could not be ripened, and even as late as 1854, Hovey 
in the Magazine of Horticulture, said of the Isabella, “From its introduction 
in 1819 to the present time it has been the only variety, with the exception 
of the Diana, worth growing in the northern and eastern states.” The Diana, 
it will be remembered, was introduced about 1843. 
