THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
! 73 
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN 
GRAPE CULTURE 
By T. V. Munson 
(Mr. Editor The National Nurseryman; you have asked me „ t , , 
to relate something of my work with grapes for your columns and OU ^ ^ necessai T foundation material on which to 
in compliance with that request this article is written.) base American Grape Culture, to fill its' sphere fully 
as it by nature is capable. This I saw required long 
Some thirty-two years ago the writer became interested years of study of all our native species of grapes, the 
in growing grapes and planted about two acres in the chief collection of the best of each, planting side by side 
varieties then grown North and South, on an eastern hillside in vineyard and hybridizing one with another and the 
near Denison, Texas, in rich cretaceous, limestone soil, best varieties in cultivation. In this work, in special jour- 
The latitude of Denison is about 33 0 , 45'. The summers are neys for the purpose and incidentally in other journeys in 
long and often very dry, remaining some¬ 
times eight to twelve weeks without rain, 
altho the average annual rainfall is above 
40 inches, mostly in October, May and 
June. Buds push in March and leaves 
fall about November 1st. 
The vines grew splendidly and bore 
fine crops for two years. Then the vine¬ 
yard became infested with mildew and 
black rot; long drouths came and it was 
seen that all varieties of Labrusca and its 
hybrids such as Concord, Ives, Martha. 
Moore, Early, Rogers, Ricketts and other 
hybrids with vinifera suffered grhatly from 
the heat and drouth and became profitless 
in 8 to 12 years, while the southern kinds, 
Herbemont, Lenoir and the Scuppernong 
and other varieties of the Muscadine 
species remained vigorous and prolific. 
But these were either too small in berry 
or in cluster and the Muscadines dropped 
as soon as ripe so that the outlook for profitable vine cult¬ 
ure was discouraging. 
There then grew in the woods on the Red River sandy 
hills innumerable “Post-Oak Grapes’’ (Vitis Lincecumii), a 
nearly allied species to the “Blue Grape’’ or “Fall Grape” 
(Vitis bicolor) of New York, Ohio, and southern Michigan, 
Indiana, Illinois, and southern Wisconsin, but having clus¬ 
ters as large or larger than Concord, sometimes a foot long, 
and berries often as large as Concord, with here and there a 
vine with much finer quality than has Concord. But I 
found all bearing vines ceased to bear when set apart by 
themselves, being practically pistillate and required improv¬ 
ing in this and other respects before they could be used com¬ 
mercially. There were also several other species of wild 
grapes found in the region round about and I undertook the 
identification of the various wild species by comparing with 
botanical descriptions given in Gray’s, Englemann’s, and 
other botanical works, even ransacking Millardet’s and 
Planchon’s universal French works on species of grapes. But 
finding a good many errors and some confusion in their classi¬ 
fications, I then conceived the idea of fully working 
Professor T. V. Munson, Denison, Texas 
which I traveled altogether some 75,000 
miles, reaching into every state and terri¬ 
tory in the United States in North 
America, except six and considerably into 
Mexico, I hunted grapes from car-windows, 
jumping off to collect specimens at every 
stop in the wood to water, or coal, or cool 
a hot box, or wait for other trains; I rode 
on horse-back many days in each year in 
grape time for several years in Texas and 
Oklahoma hunting for choice varieties to 
move into my vineyards as parents for 
new families. I wrote many hundreds of 
letters to botanists and grape growers 
thruout the States to aid me by collecting 
and sending specimens of leaves, wood, 
fruit and plants of all wild grapes in their 
regions, and received generous response, 
for which I am and ever shall be grateful. 
I studied the grape specimens in all the 
leading herbaria of the United States and 
my own the fullest of all and the plants in my own 
grounds of all species from seed, its germination on 
thru every stage and season of growth to the mature 
bearing vine and found, instead of thirteen species 
of grapes in North America, as Englemann had 
mentioned, no less than twenty-four or five, with 
prospects for others in South Mexico and Central 
America, having discovered or described and named no less 
than seven well distributed forms, equally as well entitled 
to specific distinction as the well recognized species, four 
more than any other botanist discovered and described of 
American grape species. These are Vitis Baileyana, 
Apalachian Mountains; V. Blancoii, Mexico; V. Doaniana, 
northwest Texas; V. Girdiana, southern California; V. 
Munsoniana, southern Florida; V. Simpsonii, southern 
Florida; and V. Treleasii, Arizona and New Mexico. The 
greatest number named and first described by any other 
botanist were three by Michaux and three by Englemann. 
I wrote many articles for horticultural societies and jour¬ 
nals, that have been published in the United States and 
France during the last 25 years. I supplied herbarial speci- 
