Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/356

352 surprises in store for lovers of grapes in the new varieties that may be produced by hybridizing.

Whatever method of improvement is followed very much depends upon the immediate parentage. Some varieties, whether self-fertilized or crossed, produce much higher averages of worthy offspring than others. There is so much difference in varieties in this respect that to discover parents so endowed is one of the first tasks of the grape-breeder. Unfortunately, no way is known of discovering what the best progenitors are except by records of performance. The reasons for this prepotency, seemingly well established in plants and animals alike, are not well explained by present knowledge. Often varieties of high cultural value are worthless in breeding because their characters seem not to be transmitted to their progeny, and to the contrary a variety good for but little in the vineyard may be most valuable from which to breed.

What are the results of a century's work in domesticating the wild grapes of America?

There are approximately in eastern America at the present time 240,000 acres of grapes, the product of which is largely sold for dessert purposes, but from it is manufactured yearly in the neighborhood of 10,000,000 gallons of wine, of which about 1,000,000 gallons are champagne. The making of grape juice, an industry possible only with native grapes, has grown so rapidly that it is hard to estimate the output, but certainly not less than 2,000,000 gallons were sold in the markets last year. It is doubtful if any other cultivated plants at any time in the history of the world has attained such importance, in so short a time from the wild state, as our native grapes.

Fifteen hundred varieties from twelve of the native species of grapes are now under cultivation. Almost every possible combination between these species has been made; they have been so mixed and jostled that species can no longer be recognized in the majority of varieties and the future breeder must work with characters rather than species. The methods of the past in domesticating the native grapes have been wholly empirical and extremely wasteful. Many have been called, but few chosen. But with the new knowledge of breeding and with the experience of the past, domestication ought to proceed with greater certainty. It is not too much to say that in this immense country, with its great differences in environment, we shall, some time, everywhere be growing grapes and of kinds so diverse that they will meet all of the purposes to which grapes are now put and the increasing demands for better fruits made by more critical consumers.