1 74 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
mens in complete sets of all North American and most 
Asiatic species of grapes, one set to each of the chief herba¬ 
riums in the United States and eleven sets to as many agri¬ 
cultural colleges and two full sets to institutions in France; 
and supplied to a number of experiment stations full sets of 
live plants of all the species and of my own hybrids for 
testing. 
I prepared in 1889 and 1890 a monograph, botanical and 
viticultural on American Species of Grapes for the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, under solicitation and charge of H. E. 
Vlan Deman, then the Chief of Division of Pomology. It 
gave full, botanical descriptions and viticultural observations 
and life-size color plates 10x14 inches, in water colors by a 
fine artist, of all the species. The Secretary of Agriculture, 
then—Rusk—could not get sufficient appropriation to reach 
such a work in the Division of Pomology. Van Deman went 
out with the 
Rusk adminis¬ 
tration, an d 
other interests 
crowded that 
work out of 
sight, and it lies 
sleeping among 
the archives of 
the Department 
of Agriculture. 
The only reason 
ever given by 
Rusk or any 
other Secretary 
of Agriculture 
has been “lack 
of funds.’’ A 
preliminary an¬ 
nouncement of 
the work was 
Bulletin 56 of the Department, but the promised publi¬ 
cation never came. 
I began the breeding of varieties of grapes by selection 
and hybridization in 1880 and continued the work to the 
present time, tho with less vigor in recent years than formerly, 
and during the twenty-eight years germinated fully 75,000 
hybrid seed out of which concourse of started varieties I have 
culled down to some sixty that have been introduced after 
a number of years of favorable fruiting with me. The most 
of these were bred for the South, as this section has been in 
greatest need, but some of them have made good records in 
the North, for example; this fall, Dr. J. L. Goodale, 258 
Beacon Street, Boston, exhibited before the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society, fruit of quite a number (eighteen) of 
my varieties grown by him, for which he was awarded the 
Society’s medal, the only medal given on new varieties of 
grapes this year. The Doctor reports as doing well there 
the following: Manito, Headlight, Rommel, Wapanuka, 
Floeta, Hidalgo, Wine King, America. 
In the South a number of my kinds have become standards. 
Altogether I have planted here nine test and market 
vineyards, all of which have been profitable for their fruit 
to say nothing of the value as tests and for propagation. 
Many unsatisfactory vines in each of these vineyards have 
been dug out and others put in their places until better 
satisfaction was secured. 
I see I am encroaching too much on your space, ere the 
half of my grape work has been told, and I must draw this 
string of self-references to a close, by a brief mention of my 
latest piece of real hard work. It is my grape book, 
“Foundations of American Grape Culture,” that I put 
together last year, after reviewing all my former work and 
writings on grapes, collating and revising and embellishing 
with near 90 full page, 7^x10 inches, life-size half tone 
engravings of foliage, fruit and wood of all American species 
and clusters of best varieties new and old so far produced . 
and text enough to make such a large paged work book up 
to some 2 50 pages. 
I took the 
manuscript to 
New York in 
October, 1907,in 
search of pub¬ 
lishers, but the 
“panic” was 
coming on and I 
found no pub¬ 
lisher willing to 
undertake the 
job. Now, I 
have concluded 
with the assist¬ 
ance of my able 
son, Will B. 
Munson, to pub¬ 
lish the book 
myself, if 1000 
subscribers can 
be obtained. 
The first edition will be an autograph edition, with good 
recent photo-engraving of the author. The printing will 
be on 100 pound coated book paper, bound in buckram, 
gold lettering on back and cover, costing delivered about 
what we ask for it, $3. It is aimed to be and remain a classic 
on the subject. 
It will be printed and bound by a first class house, well 
equipped for such work. Subscription blanks will be 
mailed to applicants. 
Dr. L. H. Bailey has signified his willingness to write the 
Foreword for the book, which I greatly appreciate. 
W. W. Thomas, “The Strawberryman,” of Anna, Ills., 
says that his business for several seasons has been growdng 
so very rapidly, and owing to the fact that the season just 
past has far exceeded any former year, he is compelled to 
increase his acreage to meet the growing demand for 
strawberry plants. This summer he expects to build an 
additional large and up-to-date packing house. 
Mr. W. Van Kleef, Jr., of W. Van Kleef & Sons, Boskoop, Hol¬ 
land, called at the office of the National Nurseryman early in May. 
A familiar scene in the bulb growing region of Holland. (See DeGraaf article.) 
