12 
1ST. C. Agricultural Experiment Station 
lislied tlie only book that has ever been published on the Scuppernong 
grape. On page 19 of this book he writes: “Seedlings of the Scupper¬ 
nong have but little uniformity in appearance; some are red, others 
brown or nearly black, and others again green and yellow/ 7 On page 
20 he again states: “The seedlings begin to bear fruit the third or 
fourth year; it is to these we are to look for great improvement in this 
fruit. Many, doubtless, will be inferior to the parents, while some 
will be equal and others superior in size and flavor. Bestow the care 
and attention to cultivation and raising seedlings from this fruit that 
has been expended upon the strawberry and we may with confidence 
expect to have vines producing berries as large as hen’s eggs or even 
larger. To do this we have but to follow Yan Mons, the great pear 
grower, of Belgium, who says, ‘sow, sow, keep sowing seeds,’ and im¬ 
provement is sure to follow.” On page 23 he continues: “To those 
who are dissatised with the merits of the Scuppernong we would again 
urge to sow its seeds, and beyond all question you will sooner or later 
get a grape far superior to it in size and flavor, but not in exemption 
from disease, or more productive, or easily cultivated.” 
Mr. Yan Buren began such work of raising seedlings, and in an 
article published on page 69 of the Southern Cultivator for 1872 he 
reports the results of this work: “In the fall of 1867 we sowed a 
quantity of the seeds of the Scuppernong and the subsequent year 
raised about 2,000 plants, which grew to the height of some two feet; 
amongst this number we found but one plant that would produce a 
white grape. * * * In the fall of 1868 we again sowed about the 
like quantity of seeds from the Scuppernong and amongst some 2,000 
plants failed to get a single white grape; in the fall of 1869 we again 
sowed about the same quantity and kind of seeds as before, from which 
we got three plants that would produce white grapes. * * In the 
fall of 1869 we sowed eight seeds taken from the white variety above 
described, it being the second remove or generation from the wild type 
of this class of grapes. These eight seeds all grew last summer and we 
find three out oi the eight to be white varieties.” 
Another early experimenter with this grape was Jno. McRae, of 
Camden County, S. C. On page 62 of the American Farmer for 1877 
he writes as follows: “I have been amusing myself in growing seedlings 
of the Scuppernong. * * * I have fifteen or twenty which produced 
fruit last year; about one-half of the color of the parent; the other 
black. * * * I planted last year over 1,900 seeds; of which nearly 
all grew, and of these about 10 or 11 per cent had the color of the 
parent.” 
The most systematic breeding work of the early experimenters was 
attempted by Dr. Peter Wylie, of Chester, S. C. . In the Report of the 
American Pomological Society for 1871 he writes as follows: “My 
experience will go far to establish the following facts, viz.: That we 
can not fertilize the Scuppernong with the pollen from any other species, 
or their hybrid varieties, or with male (staminate) hybrid Scupper- 
nongs. ^Second, that we can impregnate the foreign (Yitis vinifera), 
with pollen from the suppernong producing thereby only male (stam¬ 
inate) plants, and imperfect hermaphrodite or pistillate plants, which 
bear no fruit. Third, we can not impregnate Labrusca, sestivales, cordi- 
folia, or their hybrids, with foreign (Yitis vinifera) with pollen from 
