A root of the Delaware Grape was sent me about ten years since, by an intelligent citizen of Delaware, in this State, who informed me that it was brought there several years before by an emigrant from New Jersey, who stated that it had been there cultivated for many years by an emigrant from Europe, and from that circumstance deemed to be a foreign grape. When in bearing in my garden, all my German vine-dressers pronounced it the best German wine grape, the Traminer. As I have never found a foreign grape that would succeed in our soil and climate, I was doubtful if it could be of foreign origin. But if a native, it proved of less vigorous growth than any native grape that I have seen. I never kept but three or four vines, and the one sent me about ten years since has not increased in vigor of growth. It produces a wine of good, but not, as far as tested, of superior quality. In one of my vineyards there are several vines, and some wine made from the grapes yearly. When first assured of its being the Traminer, I thought of planting it as a wine grape. From its delicate growth, had I done so, I should have planted it as vines are planted in vineyards in many parts of Europe - three feet between the rows, the plants in the rows two feet apart.

The bunches and berries are small, but of superior quality as a table grape. I regret that I have not planted its seed, as I have a seedling of the Isabella Grape of fine quality, that, in the open ground, bears berries larger than the largest European grapes, even when raised under glass, and the bunches of large size. From the Delaware, a like improvement would probably occur. It will be our own fault if we do not, in a few years, equal, if not surpass, the best table and wine grapes of Europe, by planting the seed of our best native grapes, and not by following the advice of some wise European writers, who say "that if we wish to improve the quality of our pears and apples, we must not do it by planting the seed of our best fruit, but by commencing with the seed of the crab apple and the choke pear, and improve by degrees." This may have been a wise course in the days of Methuselah, when men lived a thousand years, but it is not suited to this period. A country that abounds in a thousand varieties of native grapes, should leave Europe in the background - where a native grape is never seen - both in table and wine grapes. [The Delaware and Traminer are distinct grapes, and must not be confounded.

It has been said that the demand for the former is met by some, not in possession of the Delaware, with Traminer. Purchasers should beware. - Ed].

* See Frontispiece.