Grape Growing in Florida 
Chas Dearing, U. S. D. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
I am enjoying the privilege of meeting 
with you again as a representative of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. Two 
years ago at your Ocala meeting it was 
my privilege to present to you a report of 
the Department’s work in relation to Mus¬ 
cadine grape growing in the Southeast, 
and to suggest to you the advisability of 
developing Muscadine grape industry in 
that part of Florida, north of the main 
citrus section. I have been pleased to note 
the manner in which that suggestion is 
being acted upon and encouraged to make 
additional suggestions along this line. In 
the home demonstration work the club 
girls and women have progressed with 
their program of planting the best varie¬ 
ties of Muscadines in their perennial gar¬ 
dens and making home products. A 
goodly number of farm vineyards have 
been started, if I may judge from our 
correspondence. The commercial nur¬ 
serymen have co-operated to the extent of 
propagating vines in quantity to meet the 
needs of your State and other southeast¬ 
ern states as well; and at present, at least 
one company is organized for Muscadine 
grape growing on an extensive commer¬ 
cial scale and is engaged in the develop¬ 
ment of vineyards on an 8,000-acre tract 
of North Florida land with a view to the 
A., Washington, D. C. 
commercial production of Muscadine 
grape juice, jellies, and other products, 
standardized by the Department. 
In my present paper, I shall, as request¬ 
ed, devote myself to a consideration of the 
general grape growing situation in Flor¬ 
ida. In doing so I shall speak without 
prejudice but with a view to giving you a 
clear statement of the Department’s view¬ 
point. This viewpoint is the result of ob¬ 
servations and experimental investigations 
by various specialists extending over a 
period of many years; back, in fact, to the 
time when fruit investigations were first 
inaugurated by the Department. I am not 
attempting to give you my personal opin¬ 
ion, but a summary of the conclusions of 
the best authorities of the past and present 
day. I know that some of the leading 
horticulturists of Florida hold similar 
views. I ask that you bear this in mind 
if I may seem to present matters too pes¬ 
simistically or optimistically. 
American viticulture is of three types 
based upon the kind of grape used as the 
basis of the industry and all of these types 
are represented in the history of Florida 
grape growing. On the Pacific coast a 
great viticultural industry is based on the 
growing of the European type of grape. 
In the Central and Northeastern United 
States we have another type of grape in- 
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