Transactions Of The Massachusetts Horticultural Society For The Year 1896 Vol 1 Classic Reprint

Excerpt from Transactions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for the Year 1908, Vol. 1 In order to place the subject of the origin of the Concord grape fully before you it will be necessary to go back and trace very briefly the history of the grape up to the time that our story proper shall begin. The grape is probably the Oldest of cultivated fruits and certainly no other fruit has been cultivated so extensively, although its earlier uses were largely confined to wine making. In this connection we hear a great deal of it in the Bible, even as far back as Noah, who planted vineyards. The grape is undoubtedly of Asiatic origin, but was early introduced into Europe, where now as many' as 300 varieties are cultivated in the great wine-growing countries. European varieties of the grape were brought to America very' early in the history of the colonies, particularly in the South; but all attempts at cultivation failed owing to the incursions of mildew and rot. Early growers in America followed the same ideas that were practiced in Europe and planted on terraced hillsides. So when European varieties proved unsuccessful many horticulturists turned their attention towards our native grapes and attempted to, improve them through cultivation. As far back as 1800 many efforts were thus made, but it was only in the South that any real success was attained and Isabella and Catawba were produced from native varieties, the former in South Carolina and the latter in Georgia. The introduction of the Isabella in 1819 gave a great impetus to grape growing; and as this variety proved hardy in New England, everyone who owned a back yard bought some of these vines and began growing grapes;. So that up to 1850 this was the only grape grown in New England for table use with the possible exception of the Diana. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.