TWENTY-SIXTH SESSION. 
109 
pure Labrusca varieties like Concord and Worden winter-kill. It is probable 
that from vulpina or its hybrids there will be eventually produced a type of 
fruit sufficiently hardy to extend the cultivation of the grape, for home use 
at least, considerably beyond its present northern limits. 
American grapes have practically been under regular vineyard cultivation 
for but little more than a half century. The vinifera grapes have been 
brought to their present high standard through thousands of years of cultiva- 
tion. Vineyards of them have been grown in the Old World from time im- 
memorial. The American species which have given rise to so many varieties 
of great merit in the brief period in which they have been under cultivation, 
. will surely add varieties of universally acknowledged excellence to the future 
lists of cultivated grapes. We firmly believe that the improvement of Amer- 
ican grapes will continue till the fruit of our vineyards finds sale in foreign 
markets. Thus the field of American viticulture will be broadened and the 
industry given increasing stability and prosperity. The next fifty years 
should witness more rapid improvement than lias been seen in the last fifty 
years. Greater success than now seems possible may crown well directed 
persistent effort. 
Work in the direction of improving the types of American grapes may well 
accompany the variety testing, which is being conducted at many of the 
agricultural colleges and experiment stations of the country. Students may 
easily be led to take an interest in it, and by their labors hasten its progress. 
More rapid advance may doubtless be made by continued systematic effort 
looking toward some definite result. Too much of the work that has been 
done in the past has been unsystematic and unscientific. It has been entered 
upon with vague notions as to what results were desired and if some in- 
definitely anticipated good variety has not come like a lottery prize with the 
first batch of seedlings, the work has often times been dropped. In but few 
instances has there been anything done which may properly be dignified by 
the name of grape breeding. How often has effort been well directed toward 
a certain end, for more than two generations of vines? Where grapes have 
been bred with a definite purpose in view encouraging results have been 
attained, notably in the work of Bull, Munson, Campbell, Hoag, Ricketts, 
Moore and a few others. 
In closing I desire to call attention to the great service which those who 
are interested in the improvement of the grape may render to the cause by 
publishing the results of work in this line so that the records will be accessible 
to other workers. These records should be sufficiently complete to set forth 
the general type of the seedlings which come from any known parent or 
combination of parents. They should show the undesirable parents and un- 
congenial unions as well as those which give desirable results. 
The published records which throw light on this subject are still very 
meagre and each worker is compelled to depend largely upon personal 
experience and observation for the knowledge which he needs in order to 
work to advantage in any definite line. The members of this and other 
kindred organizations, the horticulturists of the colleges and experiment 
stations, and those who are associated with the horticultural press or who con- 
tribute to horticultural literature may do much towards securing the publica- 
tion of data of this kind which would be of great value to American viti- 
culture. Not until more definite information is accessible concerning the 
pedigree of cultivated varieties and the characters which particular parents 
