Beside the qualities named above for the Delaware, it matures sufficiently early to make its crops certain, is attractive in appearance, keeps well on the vine and in the package, ships well and is more immune than other commercial varieties to black-rot. Its faults are: The small size of the vine, slowness of growth, susceptibility of the foliage to mildew, its capriciousness in certain soils, and the small size of the berries. The first two faults make it necessary to plant the vines more closely than other commercial varieties stand. It succeeds best in deep, rich, well-drained, warm soils but even on these it must receive good cultivation, close pruning, and in some cases the fruit must be thinned. It is, too, a necessity, where mildew is abundant, to spray with bordeaux mixture which keeps the disease well in check. Birds are very fond of this variety and it suffers in particular from the depredations of robins. Delaware is the best American table grape and as such commands a premium in all of the markets, selling oftentimes for double the price of Concord. It is also much sought for by wine-makers both for Delaware wine and for blending in making champagne or other wines of high quality. It is grown North and South and westward to the Rocky Mountains, and is now proving especially profitable in many southern locations as an early grape to ship to northern markets. The Delaware is an especially desirable grape to cultivate in small gardens because of its delicious and handsome fruit, its compact habit of growth, and when in health, its ample and lustrous green, delicately formed leaves which make it one of the most ornamental of the grapes.[178] Delaware is the parent of an interesting but not particularly valuable progeny; none of the pure-bred offspring nearly equal the parent though many of them inherit its fine color and high quality. Among its cross-bred offspring are some notable varieties, all of which are described in their proper places in this work. An interesting fact regarding the pure-bred progeny of Delaware is that, so far as we have records, it seems to have given very few black grapes though there are often white or rose-colored seedlings among them. Even in its cross-bred offspring, red, or some tint of it greatly predominates, indicating power in the transmission of color and suggesting the value of this variety in breeding red grapes. [Illustration: DELAWARE]