Vol. LV. No. 2446. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 12, 1896. 
81.00 PER YEAR. 
GEO. W. CAMPBELL 
THE INTRODUCER OE THE DELAWARE GRArE. 
Sketch of His Life and Public Services 
Not long since, The R. N.-Y. received a notice of 
the golden wedding of Geo. W. Campbell, the veteran 
horticulturist of Ohio. It is not often that such events 
are recorded, and we take a double pleasure in speak¬ 
ing of this one. Mr. Campbell, through his associa¬ 
tion with the Delaware grape, has become known to 
fruit lovers everywhere. For nearly 40 years, that 
delightful little cluster of sweetness has been passed 
about the land, until we are sure that our readers have 
pleasant thoughts and memories of the man who 
started it on its rounds. Few men reach their 80th 
year with a greater share of the love and respect of 
friends and neighbors than Mr. Campbell 
may show. The R. N.-Y. is, therefore, 
doubly glad to present an excellent picture 
of Mr. Campbell, and a brief sketch of his 
life and services. 
Geo. W. Campbell was born in Cortland- 
ville, Cortland County, N. Y., January 12, 
1817. His father, David Campbell, was the 
editor and publisher of a weekly news¬ 
paper, the Cortland Republican, from 1815 
to 1821. In 1822, he emigrated, with his 
family to Ohio, and commenced the publica¬ 
tion of a newspaper at Sandusky, named 
the Sandusky Clarion, the first number of 
which was issued in May, 1822. At the age 
of about eight years, the subject of this 
sketch learned the art of type setting, and 
much of his time afterwards until his ma¬ 
jority was spent in the printing office of 
his father. In 1839, he became associated 
with him in the publication of the paper, 
and the Daily Sanduskian, together with 
the business of book-selling, until the year 
1849, when he removed to Delaware, 0., his 
present residence, where he engaged in 
mercantile, agricultural and horticultural 
pursuits. In 1857, he discontinued the mer¬ 
cantile business-, and became interested in 
propagating and disseminating the Dela¬ 
ware grape, which was first brought to 
public notice from this place, Delaware, O., 
and was named the Delaware by A. J. 
Downing. 
Mr. Campbell developed, early in life, a 
decided taste and inclination for horticult¬ 
ural pursuits, and before he was 16 years 
of age, had his father’s garden, in San¬ 
dusky, filled with the choicest varieties of 
fruits then attainable, among which were, 
probably, the first cultivated grape vines 
planted in that lake shore region, which 
afterward became, with the adjacent islands 
of Lake Erie, one of the most important 
vineyard and fruit-growing sections of the 
country. The general subject of fruits and fruit¬ 
growing, has continued to be an object of special at¬ 
tention until the present time. 
Since 1857, the improvement of some best varieties 
of flowers, vegetables and fruits (grapes especially), 
through experiments in hybridizing and crossing, has 
occupied the time of Mr. Campbell, and the following 
from Dr. Jno. A. Warder, in Vineyard Culture by 
DuBreuil, Adapted to American Culture, in 1857, will 
show how his work was regarded at that time. At 
page 67, of that work, Dr. Warder says : 
“ One of the most reliable operators in this line of 
investigation is the careful experimenter and accurate 
observer, Geo. W. Campbell, of Delaware, O., who is 
satisfied that be has effected veritable crosses between 
native varieties, and that he has, also, produced 
hybrids between the foreign and American species. 
Mr. Campbell has communicated some of the results 
of his experiments in papers to the Ohio Pomological 
Society, and in an article in the Report of the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture at Washington, 1862, page 209. 
In it the subject of hybridizing, cross-breeding and 
selection of the seedlings is pretty freely discussed. 
Mr. Campbell does not give a flattering or encour¬ 
aging view of this pursuit, when he says that about 
10 years of further care and culture (after fertilizing 
the blossoms) will be required before determinate re¬ 
sults are reached, and that the chances may be 10, or, 
perhaps, 100 to 1, that the product will be of no 
value. A good deal of enthusiasm, as well as a san¬ 
guine temperament, will be necessary to enable the 
hybridizer to find much encouragement in his pur¬ 
suit. He must be, emphatically, one who is willing 
To labor and to wait.” 
Since that time, hundreds upon hundreds of seed¬ 
lings and crosses have been produced of varied de¬ 
grees of merit—some of remarkably fine quality—but 
none of sufficient excellence in all respects to war¬ 
rant its introduction or recommendation as notably 
superior to others already in cultivation. They were, 
therefore, grown only to be discarded, until about 
the year 1887, when a carefully conducted effort by 
successive crosses of other varieties, to produce a sub¬ 
stantial improvement upon the Concord grape which 
was begun in 1874, seems to have been crowned with 
success ; having received the sanction and approval of 
the Pomological Division of the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, and other high and competent 
authorities, it has been introduced to the public as 
Campbell’s Early. It is not thought unreasonable to 
expect that it will mark an epoch in American grape 
growing as distinct and important as that of the in¬ 
troduction of the Concord or Delaware. 
The efforts of Mr. Campbell in the way of producing 
new and improved vegetable products, were acknowl¬ 
edged by the Ohio State Board of Agriculture in 1875, 
in a voluntary testimonial, signed by every member of 
the Board. 
Mr. Campbell has been associated with the principal 
horticultural and kindred societies of the country 
since about the year 1850, when he became a member 
of the American Pomological Society, and is now the 
vice-president for Ohio, and one of the oldest living 
members. He has been, also, a member of the Ohio 
State Horticultural Society for the same 
period, and has been successively its treas¬ 
urer, secretary, vice-president and presi¬ 
dent. He has been, also, a member of the 
American Horticultural Society since its 
first organization as the Mississippi Valley 
Horticultural Society at St. Louis, Mo., in 
1882. He has also attended nearly all the 
great horticultural and industrial exposi¬ 
tions : The Philadelphia Centennial Inter¬ 
national Exhibition, in 1876, where he as¬ 
sisted in making the horticultural exhibit 
for Ohio, of 1,100 plates of fruit, including 
16 varieties of new grapes of his own pro¬ 
duction, and the World’s Industrial Cotton 
Exposition also at New Orleans, when he 
had charge of the fruit exhibit of Ohio, and 
seedling grapes. He was also appointed 
by President Hayes, Additional Commis¬ 
sioner for the State of Ohio, to the French 
Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1878, 
whose report upon horticulture may be 
found in the official publication, Vol. V, 
pages 243 to 418. He is also the recipient 
of certificates, testimonials, bronze and 
silver medals from the Ohio State Board of 
Agriculture, the American Pomological 
Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society, the World’s Industrial Cotton Ex¬ 
position at New Orleans, the Centennial 
International Exhibition at Philadelphia 
in 1876, the French Exposition Universelle 
at Paris in 1878, and the World’s Columbian 
Exposition at Chicago in 1893. 
In a recent lecture on “ Improving the 
American Grape ”, Mr. Campbell used the 
following words. They give us an idea of 
the patience, skill and faith x-equired to 
produce new varieties that will really show 
improved characteristics: 
“In my own experience, after producing 
and testing for many years hundreds of de¬ 
lightful grapes, nearly all were rejected, 
because they developed some faults or 
weaknesses which rendered them, in my judgment, 
unworthy of recommendation as positive improve¬ 
ments, substantially better in all important respects 
than others already introduced and in cultivation. 
These first experiments were what might be called 
general, making crosses somewhat at random with 
some of the finer exotics and the most popular natives, 
also combinations of our best native varieties. The 
result from these efforts, though interesting and in 
some instances apparently valuable, were not satis¬ 
factory. They did not come up to my standard. 
“ Afterward, my whole attention was directed to¬ 
ward the fixed and definite improvement of some of 
our most popular favorites, such, for instance, as a 
type of the Catawba, without hard and acrid pulp 
about the seeds, and ripening as early as the Delaware, 
GEO. W. CAMPBELL OF OHIO. Fig. 265. 
