New Grape Varieties 
During the past several years, many 
new grape varieties have been introduced 
to California. Most of these new varieties 
are hybrids, the results of the grape breed - 
ing programs carried on by the University 
of California College of Agriculture at 
Davis, and the U. S. Horticultural Field 
Station at Fresno. At least one variety 
which has attained prominence, the 
ITALIA, is an importation, originating 
near Rome, Italy. One other new grape, 
the CRYSTAL, is a hybrid resulting from 
experiments carried on by P. J. Divizich, 
owner of the extensive Highland Vine- 
yards in southern Tulare County. 
All of these new varieties show certain 
improvement over the older sorts —either 
heavier production, earlier ripening, im- 
proved eating quality, greater suitability 
for distant shipping and storage, or adapt- 
ability to a wider range of soils and 
climate. A good portion of the breeding 
program of the U. C. College of Agri- 
culture has been pointed towards seedless- 
ness in table grapes, resulting in the 
PER CES Eeeandee lt 1G Rise aciectes 
and, more recently, the BEAUTY SEED- 
LESS—a new black grape. 
It takes a number of years of testing 
under various conditions of soil and 
climate to truly evaluate any new grape 
variety. Of those varieties introduced in 
the 1940’s, which are grouped in this 
pamphlet under the heading of ‘“‘Grapes 
of Fairly Recent Introduction,” several 
have found a place of commercial im- 
portance in certain grape growing areas. 
Probably the most valuable variety in 
this group is the CARDINAL, originat- 
ing in Fresno, and introduced in 1946. 
It has been found to be of most com- 
mercial importance in the early grape 
growing districts, which include Coach- 
ella, Imperial and Borego Valleys, and the 
southern San Joaquin Valley. PERLETTE 
and DELIGHT—particularly the former 
—have also found favor and brought © 
high. returns in the earlier districts of 
California. 
Of the varieties listed under the head- 
ing of “New Grape Varieties” in this 
booklet, ITALIA and‘BLACK ROSE 
both appear to have distinctive qualities 
which will warrant their being grown 
extensively, both on a commercial scale 
and in the home garden. The same is 
probably true of QUEEN, the newest in 
red grapes, although it has not been 
sufficiently tested to fully establish its 
merit. All three have large berries, large 
-bunches and bear heavily. Their appear- 
ance is outstanding, and all have excellent 
eating quality. The other variety included 
in this group,\ BEAUTY SEEDLESS, is 
the newest of them all, having only been 
named in the summer of 1953. It is 
a jet-black seedless grape, ripening with 
PERLETTE, and shows much promise 
of becoming important commercially in 
the early districts. 
While this pamphlet deals principally 
with the very new and recently new 
varieties of grapes, we also list and de- 
scribe practically all of the older, well- 
known varieties of table grapes which 
possess sufficient merit to warrant their 
being grown, either commercially or 
otherwise. 
Included also are the best known 
Varieties ote thems tastcnieamoGmeslip chat 
grapes. These are of little commercial 
importance in the West, but are well 
known in California, and especially by 
those citizens who were born east of the 
Rockies—and that comprises a good share 
of the adult population. They make ex- 
cellent arbor grapes and are grown in 
home gardens in all areas of California, 
but succeed best along or adjacent to the 
coast. 
