New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-01-17
THE BETA GRAPE AND ITS ORIGIN
Read Before MINI. Horticultural
Society Meeting Dec. $, 1911
by ". Pfaender Jr. Of
New UIm, MINI.

! do not remember ever having rea
in horticultural Papers, or havip
heard of the originator of the Bet
Grape until several years ago, whel
by mere accident I ascertaiDed th
originator as will show later on
Thinking that the party should b.
better known, l arranged with ou
worthy Secretary to make this matter
the subject of nv paper. II what
am going to say will interest you ant
assist in giving credit where credit il
due shall have accomplished sll tina,
set out to do.
In the "Western Fruit Grower Of
March, 1906, page 1853, there appeared
an article by Mr.. G. B. Camp, oil
Nebraska, on breeding Hardy
Grapes in the West". In this article
Mr.. Camp stated that for his crossing
work he had secured several good
grapes as foundation stock, among
them the ''DakOta" grape from j.
Smelter of Carver, Minnesota, which
was said to have withstood forty to
fifty below zero without injury.
Being interested in growing hardy
grapes I wrote to Mr.. Smelter in
Carver, Minnesota, regarding the
Dakota Grape and received an answer
from Mr.. JAG. -Suelter, who, l after
wards ascertained, is the son of Mr..
Louis Suelter. the originator of the
Beta and other grapes. This CORE
spondence finally resulted in MIR.
Jacob Suelter coming to New Ulm and
turning over to me his entire stock of
Dakota Grapes then in his possession,
stating that his father in later years
considered the Dakota the best of the
grapes hereinafter described. He
also had with him lengthy article,
published in the Minneapolis Freie
Presse, of October 18th, 1884, q
German newspaper, in which his
father described bis hardy grapes.
The time allotted is too short to
permit me to give the complete article,
but l will supply copy OF my trans
lation in full, to anyone desiring it;
and I will here give synopsis of the
article written by the originator. He
states that he tried for years to i'm
prove the wild grape, but had NO
reward from his experiments except
that he produced very sweet, early
and goood. bearing wild grape that
ripened its fruit early. AS the berries |
were not of the desired size, he con-
ceived the idea that if he would |
fertilize the flowers of this wild sweet |
grape with the flowers of the Concord,
which is not. hardy here, be would
produce hardy grape that would be
larger than the wild ones. He says:
81 think it was in 1870 when I made
this hybridization and grew Is seed
lings. In 1881 they lowered the first
lime and as the year 1881 was the
severest year for mildew that I have
in 20 years the majority of
these seedlings we're affected with
mildew. Five of these seedlings we're
free from mildew and I destroyed the
others.
In l8Sl-82-83 these plants bore fruit
and discovered no mlldew or rot on
any of the berries. To show how
early these hytrids are will give the
date of Towering and ripening of fruit
# the earliest as follows:
1881 No. begins to blossom May
Is, shows color July 81.
1882 No. 2 begins to blossom June
a, No. shows color Aug. 20.
1883 No. 3 begins to blossom June
Il. No. shows color Aug. %.
Then he describes how he knew that
he by bridizstion had actually taken
olsce. He states further that in 1883
he first hard frost occurred on Sep ,
ember 10th and that the wood of thess
" birds WAS perfectly mstured. he {
mentions . number of reasons Why
hese hybrids are valuable ana states
hat he named them: Beta, Monitor, :
Dakota and Suelter.
Desiring to know more about these 8
'rapes. took trip to Carver on, :
darch 9th, 1908. and secured cuttings {
rom the original Suelter home, and
'lso from two other parties at Carver
Tho had the Suelter grapes. Having
ecured cuttings from what we're
to be 8 different plants +.