Breeding Bot undifolia Grains 
9 
these varieties is by cross-pollination with some male vine. This means 
that male vines (which do not produce any fruit) must be maintained 
near, or more preferably in the vineyard. In large plantings it is neces¬ 
sary to place such male vines in various parts of the vineyard to obtain 
satisfactory results; or to top-graft some of the canes of the bearing 
plants with scions from the male vines. If the varieties were self-fertile, 
the space and the attention required by the male vines, could be used to 
much better advantage. Furthermore, the planting and the maintaining 
of male vines in the vineyard does not always insure satisfactory crops. 
During rainy seasons, when much of the pollen from male vines is 
washed away and lost, and when insects are not very active, the crops 
produced are frequently unsatisfactory. If it were not for the unusu- 
Fig. 2.—Very large fruit cluster of Scuppernong (natural size). 
ally long blooming season of these varieties, many times lasting three 
to four weeks, a large crop would rarely ever be produced. This was 
well demonstrated by the writers in their extensive self-sterility studies 
of these grapes (Bui. 209, 1ST. C. Agr. Exp. Station). With the most 
careful and painstaking cross-pcllination work seldom more than half 
of the blossoms on a cluster would set fruit. 
Our number of good varieties of rotundifolia grapes is still too small. 
When we consider the fact that nurserymen are now advertising only 
about six varieties, all of which originated under similar conditions, 
we can readily comprehend that it is a very unsatisfactory and a very 
meagre list from which to select. That varieties, all of which come 
