THE

GRAPES OF NEW YORK

BY
U. P. HEDRICK

Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1907
II

ALBANY
J. B. LYON COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS
1908

PREFACE

The purpose of The Grapes of New York is to record the state of development of American grapes. The title implies that the work is being done for a locality but in this matter New York is representative of the whole country. The contents are: Brief historical narratives of Old World and New World grapes; an account of the grape regions and of grape-growing in New York, with statistics relating to the grape, wine and grape juice industries in this State; a discussion of the species of American grapes; and the synonymy, bibliography, economic status, and full descriptions of all of the important varieties of American grapes. In the footnotes will be found brief biographical sketches of those persons who have contributed most to the evolution of the grape and to grape-growing in America and some historical and descriptive notices of certain things pertaining to the grape which do not belong in the text and yet serve to give a better understanding of it or otherwise add to the completeness of the book. Color-plates are shown of varieties which from various standpoints are considered most important.

In the brief account of the Old World grape there is little that is new. Its history is on record from the earliest times in the literature of nearly all civilized peoples. A few facts, selected here and there, have been taken to serve as an introduction to the accounts of the New World grapes. So, too, the history of the American grape has been written by others and, here, only the main facts have been set down as recorded in the score or more books dealing with this fruit. A few excursions have been made in hitherto unexplored fields. The purpose of these historical sketches is to give the reader a proper perspective of the work in hand.

The grape is probably influenced to a greater degree by soil, climate, and culture than any other fruit, and a discussion of its status cannot be complete without due consideration of the environment in which it is growing. Hence there is included as full an account of grape-growing and of the grape regions in New York as space permits. This part of the work may serve the prospective planter somewhat in selecting soils and locations but as it is not written with this as a chief end, it falls far short of some of the standard treatises on grape culture in this respect.

Comparatively few statistics are given, only those which are necessary to show the volume of grape products and the extent of the vineyards in the State and country at the present time. The figures for the whole country are surpassed by those of no other native fruit, and only by corn and tobacco among all the domesticated native plants.

The botany of the grape has been the most perplexing problem to deal with in the preparation of this work. The variability of the grape is so great, and the variations are so often toward closely related species, that it is difficult to tell where one species ends and another begins. This, of course, has led to differences in opinions. Then, too, the several monographers have not had the same specimens to work with; men do not have the same powers of discrimination; and the arrangement of botanical groups, based upon the characters of the plants and the theory of descent with adaptive modifications, is not governed by definite rules; hence botanical divisions are arbitrary and differ with the judgments of the botanists who make them. For these reasons we have as many different arrangements of species of grapes as there are men who have worked them over.

Since this work is not written from the standpoint of the botanist but of the horticulturist, no effort has been made to revise the botany of the grape. But it has been necessary to select some arrangement of species in order to make such disposition of the cultivated varieties that their characters and relationships can best be shown. In making a choice of the several recent classifications of American grapes, three main considerations have been in mind: First, that the arrangement should separate the species in the genus freely, thus decreasing the size of the groups so that they may be more easily studied. Second, that it should show as clearly as possible the relationships of the various groups and of their development—the evolution of the grape. Third, that it be an arrangement in good standing with botanists and horticulturists. After having examined all American classifications of grapes and all recent European ones, Bailey’s classification, as set forth in his monograph of the Vitaceae in Gray’s Synoptical Flora, in the Evolution of our Native Fruits, and in the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture, was adopted.

The Grapes of New York makes its chief contribution to the pomology of the country in the description of varieties. The authors have tried to study varieties from every point of view, not alone nor chiefly, it must be said, with regard to their cultural value; for most of the varieties pass out of cultivation and such information would be worthless within a few years at most. But, rather, the effort has been to determine what elementary or unit characters the grape possesses as shown in its botanical and horticultural groups. The Twentieth Century begins with the unanimous judgment of scientists that the characters of plants are independent entities which are thrown into various relationships with each other in individuals and groups of individuals. This conception of unit characters lies at the foundation of plant improvement. We are but beginning the breeding of American grapes and it has seemed to the writer that the most important part of this undertaking is to discover and record as far as possible these unit characters of grapes, thereby aiding to furnish a foundation for grape-breeding. The great problem of plant-breeding in the future will be to correlate the characters known to exist in the plant being improved; we must know what these are before we begin to combine and rearrange them.

The varieties are arranged alphabetically throughout, though, were present knowledge exact enough, it would be far better to arrange them in natural groups. Such a classification is probably possible, but it remains for future workers to search out the relationships which the structures and qualities of plant and fruit indicate and to group the varieties naturally rather than alphabetically. Wherever possible