Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/770

748 mousseux maybe attributed to three elements: (1) The variety of grape; (2) the soil and climatic conditions; and (3) the manipulation. The grapes of which the French wine is made grow on a soil which is peculiar in its mixture of chalk, silica, light clay, and oxide of iron. The surface of the champagne district is composed of light clay and pebbles, and the vine flourishes best where the soil appears most sterile. Hence, while the grapes for champagne contain but little sugar, they draw from the earth those chemical elements that give certain peculiar qualities to the wine.

When viticulture was introduced into this country, more than one hundred years ago, efforts were made to grow the European varieties of grapes east of the Mississippi. With few exceptions, these foreign varieties turned out to be failures. Then our Eastern viticulturists directed their attention to the improvement of native vines. By dint of experiment after experiment they have succeeded in developing some of the choicest and most valuable varieties of grapes known—varieties good for the table as well as for wine-making.

The two great native grape stocks are the Concord and the Catawba. From the seedlings of the Concord we have obtained Worden, Moore's Early, Pocklington, Martha, and other well-known varieties. The Concord is also one parent of Niagara, El Dorado, Brighton, etc. From the Catawba we have obtained lona, Diana, Excelsior, etc. The Delaware and Isabella have given us a few good varieties. Some idea of the varieties of native grapes can be gained from the statement that two hundred and seventy-five varieties of grapes were sent by Eastern growers to the horticultural exhibit at the World's Fair, Chicago.

The wonderful improvement of our wild American grapes is striking testimony to man's power of selection. He has transformed sourish, harshly flavored wildlings into sweet, luscious fruit. In this process there has been an evolution of the sense of taste. Our grandfathers and fathers ate sour grapes, but the children's teeth have not been set on edge, because they eat sweet grapes. The difference between a lemon and an orange represents the improvement of the grapes of the present day over the grapes of fifty years ago.

Somewhat different has been the history of viticulture in California. There, efforts to grow the European varieties of grapes were successful from the first. The California growers did not have to experiment with native vines. Numerous varieties of the foreign species Vitis vinifera were planted and cultivated, and, in the right climate and soil, they showed their Old World characteristics. Many of the choice kinds of French, German, Italian, and Spanish types seem to come nearer to reproducing themselves here than elsewhere.