546 WISCONSIN FRUIT-GROWERS’ ASSOCIATION. 
well here as it does in the Ohio valley, and will produce as 
good a wine, and yet I do not think it as valuable as the Isa¬ 
bella, for either the table or wine press. 
I have made wine of both kinds, and, except by a Jiypercritic , 
the Isabella has the preference nine times out of ten ; and in 
point of product, will excel the Catawba by more than twenty- 
five per cent. 
I find that soil, as well as climate, has a very material effect 
upon the quality, productiveness and health of the Grape.— 
Thus, a neighbor of mine has a vineyard, situated on a clay 
soil of rather a whitish color. His vines grow very well ; his 
grapes are large and fine in appearance, but are inferior in 
point of quality or flavor. Another in an adjoining county, has 
his vines on a side hill, where several thin strata of coal crop 
out amongst them. Here the Isabella fails entirely, while the 
Catawba comes to the greatest perfection. 
You may be situated so far north as to preclude the ripening 
of some kinds of the Grapes cultivated now, but I feel 
confident that time and experience will point out soils and situ¬ 
ations, in your highest latitudes, that will grow Grapes of a 
quality well suited to either the table or wine press. The fact 
is, dear sir, that the cultivation of the vine is so much in its 
infancy, that we are as yet entirely ignorant of what our soil 
and climate will produce, or of the variety and excellency of 
the fruits within our reach, provided they were sought out, and, 
by skillfully adapted cultivation, in a good soil and situation, 
have their merits brought to the test. 
The Concord may be one of the Grapes you are in need of. 
I have not fruited it yet, nor am I sufficiently informed of its 
success in different localities and soils, to warrant my giving 
any opinion about it. I fruited last year, for the first time, 
the Delaware Grape, a native of Ohio, where it has been cul¬ 
tivated for many years, without attracting any notice, simply 
because it was a small Grape, found growing in the woods, in 
a poor part of the country, without anything in its appearance 
name, or foreign birth, to entitle it to the least regard. Lately 
