Chapter 39

FOOTNOTES:[1]De Candolle, Alphonse.Origin of Cultivated Plants: 191. 1882.[2]Translation of Dryden.[3]Perhaps the most marked distinguishing feature between ancient and modern grape-growing is the training of vines to trees as indicated in the above verse. Pliny says of this practice: “In Campania they attach the vine to the poplar; embracing the tree to which it is thus wedded, the vine grasps the branches with its amorous arms, and as it climbs, holds on with its knotted trunk till it has reached the very summit; the height being sometimes so stupendous that the vintager when hired, is wont to stipulate for his funeral pile and grave at the owner’s expense.”[4]Bailey gives the following interpretation of the word “fox” and its derivatives as applied to grapes: “The term fox-grape was evidently applied to various kinds of native grapes in the early days, although it is now restricted to theVitis labruscaof the Atlantic slope. Several explanations have been given of the origin of the name fox-grape, some supposing that it came from a belief that foxes eat the grapes, others that the odor of the grape suggests that of the fox—an opinion to which Beverly subscribed nearly two centuries ago—and still others thinking that it was suggested by some resemblance of the leaves to a fox’s track. William Bartram, writing at the beginning of this century, in the Medical Repository, is pronounced in his convictions: ‘The strong, rancid smell of its ripe fruit, very like the effluvia arising from the body of the fox, gave rise to the specific name of this vine, and not, as many have imagined, from its being the favourite food of the animal; for the fox (at least the American species) seldom eats grapes or other fruit if he can get animal food.’ I am inclined to suggest, however, that the name may have originated from the lively foxing or intoxicating qualities of the poor wine which was made from the wild grapes. At the present day we speak of ‘foxiness’ when we wish to recall the musk-like flavor of the wildVitis labrusca; but this use of the term is of later origin, and was suggested by the name of the grape.” Bailey, L. H.Evolution of Our Native Fruits: 5. 1898.[5]The phylloxera (Phylloxera vastatrixPlanch.) has four forms: the leaf-gall form, the root form, the winged form, and the sexual form. Individual leaf insects produce from 500 to 600 eggs, the root insect about 100, the winged insect from 3 to 8, and the sexual insect but 1. The last is laid in the fall on old wood; the following spring a louse hatches from it and at once goes to the upper surface of a leaf and inserts its beak. The irritation thus produced causes a gall to form on the lower side of the leaf. In fifteen days the louse becomes a full-grown wingless female and proceeds to fill the gall with eggs after which it dies. In about a week females hatch from the eggs and migrate to form new colonies. Several generations of females occur in a summer. At the approach of winter the lice go into the ground where they remain dormant until spring when they attack the roots forming galls analogous to those on the leaves and passing through a series of generations similar to those above ground. In the fall of the second year some of the root forms give rise to winged females which fly to neighboring vines. These lay eggs in groups of two or four on the wood of the grape. The eggs are of two sizes; from the smaller size, males hatch in nine or ten days; from the larger, females. In the sexual stage no food is taken and the insects quickly pair. The female produces an egg which fills its entire body and after three or four days lays it, this being the winter egg, the beginning of the cycle.There are no remedies worthy the name and the only efficient preventive is to graft susceptible varieties on resistant stocks. Species are resistant about in the order named:V. rotundifolia,V. riparia,V. rupestris,V. cordifolia,V. berlandieri,V. cinerea,V. aestivalis,V. candicans,V. labrusca,V. vinifera.[6]Delaware wrote as follows: “In every boske and hedge, and not farr from our pallisade gates we have thousands of goodly vines running along and leaving to every tree, which yealds a plentiful grape in their kinde. Let me appeale, then, to knowledge if these naturall vines were planted, dressed and ordered by skilfull vinearoons, whether we might not make a perfect grape and fruitfull vintage in short time?” Delaware’s Relation.Brown’s Genesis of the United States.1611.[7]Discourse of the Old Company,British State Papers, Vol. III:40 SeeVirginia Magazine of History, Vol. I:159.[8]Laws and Orders of Assembly, Feb. 16, 1623.McDonald Papers, Vol. I:97. Va. State Library.[9]The clause in this act reads: “That all workers upon corne and tobacco shall this spring plant five vyne plants per pol, and the next year, before the first day of March, 20 per pol, upon penaltie to forfeite one barrell of corne for every one that shall make default.”[10]Roger Beverly, writing a century later, describes the early grape-growing in Virginia as follows: “The Year before the Massacre,Anno1622, which destroyed so many good projects for Virginia; some French vignerons were sent thither to make an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: ‘That it far excelled their own country ofLanguedoc, The vines growing in great abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very cuttings, the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had not heard of the like in any other country.’ Neither was this out of the way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine, and of the plants sent thither from England.”Beverly’s Virginia, Second Edition: 107. 1722.[11]Fiske, John.Old Virginia and Her Neighbors.Vol. II:372, 385.[12]American Farmer, Baltimore, 11:35. 1829-30.Ib., 12:396. 1830-31.[13]Dankers, Jasper, and Sluyter, Peter.Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80: 130.[14]Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Holland Documents, 1603-1656. Vol. I:277.[15]The grant of the bounty is recorded in Volume II,Deeds of New York, page 87, on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany. It runs as follows:—“Whereas Paul Richards an inhabitant of this Citty of New York hath made knowne to mee his intent to plant vines at a certaine Plantation that hee hath upon Long Island, called the little ffiefe, which if it succeed, may redound very much to the future benefitt and advantage of the inhabitants within this Government; and in regard, it will require much labour and a considerable charge to provide vines and to p’pare the ground and make it fitt for production of wines; ffor an Encouragemt to the said Paul Richards in his proceedings therein, I have thought fitt to grant unto him these following privileges (viz.)“That all wines of the growth of such vines as the said Paul Richards shall plant, or cause to bee planted at the place aforesaid, shall be free from any kind of impositions for ever if sold in grosse, and not by retaile:“That the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes shall have the privilege to have such wines sold by retaile in any one house in New York for the term of thirty years to come, from the time of the first selling of his wines, free from all imposts or excise:“That every person who shall hereafter for thirty years to come, plant vines within any place in this Government, shall upon the first yeares improvement pay unto the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes, five shillings for every acre so planted as an acknowledgement of his being the first undertaker and planter of vines in these parts. For the confirmacon of the privileges above specified, I have hereunto put my hand and seale.“Given at ffort James in New York this 10th day of January, 1664. RIC. NICOLLS.”[16]Bellomont’s letter is as follows: “As to propagating vines in these plantations to supply all of the dominions of the Crown, I can easily make that appear. In the first place Nature has given us an index in these Plantations that points to us what may be done in that by the help of art. There grows wild grapes in all of the woods here in very great abundance; I have observed them in many places but especially above Albany on the side of the Hudson river where the vines all along twine around great trees and fair clusters of grapes appear sometimes above 30 foot from the ground. I have eaten of the wild grapes which I thought tastefull enough, only somewhat harsh as an effect of their wildness.” Then follows an account of how the French had previously made wine in Canada but that the Court of France had forbade its being made fearing that it might be prejudicial to the wine trade of the French. Earl of Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, Nov. 28, 1700.Documents Relating to Colonial History of the State of New York, 4:787.[17]Francis Higginson wrote in 1630: “excellent Vines are here up and downe in the Woods. Our Governour hath already planted a Vineyard with great hope of encrease.”[18]Bellomont records that a company of French immigrants had made good wine in Rhode Island toward the close of the 17th century but they were driven out of the Colony by the English and the industry ceased.N. Y. Col. Doc., 4:787.[19]American Farmer, Baltimore, 10:387. 1828-29.[20]American Farmer, Baltimore, 10:387. 1828-29.Ib., 11:172. 1829-30.[21]Vol. I:117-198. 1769-71.[22]All that is known of the life of Edward Antill is found inJohnson’s Rural Economywhere he is spoken of as “Mr. Antill, late of Middlesex County, New-Jersey, a gentleman who cultivated the grape with sedulous attention.”Johnson’s Rural Economy: 164. 1806.[23]Legaux’s paper is found as a treatise on the cultivation of the vine inThe True Americanof March 24, 1800. The article contains about 2000 words, the main part of it being “A Statement of the Expense and Income of a Vineyard, Made on Four Acres of Land, situated in Pennsylvania, in the 40th Degree of Latitude.”Of Legaux’s life, little is known, other than that he was a French vine-grower with an experimental vineyard, as he says in the above article, at “Spring Mill, 13 miles N. N. W. from Philadelphia.” Johnson speaks of Legaux as a philanthropist; McMahon calls him a “gentleman of Worth and Science”; while Rafinesque accuses him of fraud and deception in the matter of calling the native grapes Bland and Alexander,MadeiraandCape.Judging the man from his article inThe True Americanand from the words of his contemporaries, he was a capable, enthusiastic and intelligent grape-grower. His philanthropy is more doubtful. It is true that he distributed many grape plants but as he himself says to “fellow citizens possessing pecuniary means.” That he practiced deceit in the matter of the introduction of the Alexander as the Cape is probable. However, his deceit, if such it were, may be forgotten and he should be remembered as the chief disseminator of the Alexander, the first distinctive American variety of commercial value.[24]The True American, March 24, 1800.[25]Johnson, S. W.,Rural Economy: 156. New Brunswick, N. J., 1806.[26]John James Dufour, born in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, in 1763, came to America in 1796 to engage in grape-growing and wine-making. An account of his work is given in the text. In 1826 Dufour published theVine Dresser’s Guide, which became the authority on the culture of this fruit at that time. Dufour must be remembered for this book, for the dissemination of the Cape or Alexander grape, and as one of the pioneer vineyardists and wine-makers of the New World.[27]Dufour, John James.Vine Dresser’s Guide: 307. 1826.[28]U. S. Statutes at Large, 3:374.[29]American State Papers, Public Lands, 3:396.[30]For fuller accounts of this dramatic episode in French and American history, and in American agriculture, see:The Napoleonic Exiles in America, J. S. Reeves, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 23 Series, pp. 530-656;The Bonapartists in Alabama, A. B. Lyon,Gulf State Historical Magazine, March, 1903;The French Grant in Alabama, G. Whitfield Jr.,Ala. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV;The Vine and Olive Colony, T. C. McCorvey,Alabama Historical Reports, April, 1885.[31]The last official account of this colony in the records of the United States Government is found inAmerican State Papers, Vol. III. “In a letter of Frederick Ravesies to the treasury department dated January 18, 1828, is the following: ‘We have suffered severely from the unparalleled drought of the last summer; many of our largest and finest looking vines, which had just commenced bearing luxuriantly, were totally killed by the dry hot weather. Yet, notwithstanding this misfortune, the grantees, with increased diligence, are using every exertion to procure others which are thought to be more congenial to the soil and climate, and are now generally engaged in replanting.’” Quoted fromStudies in Southern and Alabama History, 1904:131.[32]William Robert Prince, fourth proprietor of the Prince Nursery and Linnæan Botanic Garden, Flushing, Long Island, was born in 1795 and died in 1869. Prince was without question the most capable horticulturist of his time and an economic botanist of note. His love of horticulture and botany was a heritage from at least three paternal ancestors, all noted in these branches of science, and all of whom he apparently surpassed in mental capacity, intellectual training and energy. He was a prolific writer, being the author of three horticultural works which will always take high rank among those of Prince’s time. These were:A Treatise on the Vine,Pomological Manual, in two volumes, and theManual of Roses, beside which he was a lifelong contributor to the horticultural press. All of Prince’s writings are characterized by a clear, vigorous style and by accuracy in statement. His works are almost wholly lacking the ornate and pretentious furbelows of most of his contemporaries though it must be confessed that he fell into the then common fault of following European writers somewhat slavishly. During the lifetime of Wm. R. Prince, and that of his father Wm. Prince, who died in 1842, the Prince Nursery at Flushing was the center of the horticultural nursery interests of the country; it was the clearing-house for foreign and American horticultural plants, for new varieties and for information regarding plants of all kinds.[33]Prince, Wm. R.A Treatise on the Vine: 337. 1830.[34]Nicholas Longworth, known as the “father of American grape culture”, was born in 1783, in Newark, New Jersey. At an early age he went West making his home in Cincinnati where he became a lawyer, banker, and a man of large business affairs in what was then the far frontier. From his boyhood Longworth was interested in horticulture and as a young man became greatly interested in native grapes. He was one of the men to whom John Adlum sent the Catawba and he became its disseminator and a promoter for the region in which he lived, making this grape the first great American grape and Cincinnati the center of the foremost grape-growing region of the Continent. He was the first vineyardist to make wine on a large scale and perfected methods of making wine from the native grapes so that the product was comparable to that from the best wine cellars of Europe. Longworth introduced the first cultivated variety of the wild black raspberry,Rubus occidentalis, under the name of the Ohio Everbearing. His interest in the strawberry was second only to that in the grape and he not only did much to encourage its cultivation in America but also, after a long controversy with horticulturists and botanists, fully established the fact that many varieties of this fruit are infertile with themselves and that under cultivation infertile varieties must have sorts planted near them capable of cross-pollinating them. Longworth took a deep interest in horticulture generally and gathered about him a group of pioneer horticulturists who did much for American fruit-growing in the middle of the nineteenth century, in many respects molding and guiding the horticulture of that time in this country. Longworth wrote much for the contemporary horticultural magazines and published two small books, “The Cultivation of the Grape and Manufacture of Wine” and “Character and Habits of the Strawberry Plant.” He died in 1863, aged 80, at Cincinnati, one of the most distinguished, enterprising and wealthy citizens of his State. For further discussion of his life see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits: 61-65. 1898.[35]Probably the northern part of the vine region of France; the Jura mountains are in the east central part.[36]Transactions New York State Agricultural Society, 6:689. 1846.[37]Fuller, Andrew S.Record of Horticulture: 21. 1866.[38]There is a wild grape vine (probablyVitis aestivalis) near Daphne, Alabama, on the shores of Mobile Bay, known as the “General Jackson vine” because of General Jackson having camped under it during the war with the Seminole Indians in 1817-18, which for age and size is truly remarkable. Mr. E. Q. Norton of Daphne writes of this vine as follows: “There is little known regarding the Jackson grape vine beyond the fact that the oldest man living here when I came here—20 years ago—told me that the Indians told him when he came here as a boy—90 years ago—that the vine was at that time an old one, which had been growing longer than any of them could remember. It was 27 inches through the trunk, four feet above the ground, when I measured it ten years since, and the vines were running over the surrounding trees for many rods. The grapes were very small, quite hard and not very juicy.”[39]The following is an account of the discovery of grapes in Vinland translated from the Icelandic manuscript by Reeves:“When they had completed their house Leif said to his companions, ‘I propose now to divide our company into two groups, and to set about an exploration of the country; one half of our party shall remain at home at the house, while the other half shall investigate the land, and they must not go beyond a point from which they can return home the same evening, and are not to separate. Thus they did for a time; Leif himself, by turns, joined the exploring party or remained behind at the house. * * *“It was discovered one evening that one of their party was missing, and this proved to be Tyrker the German. Leif was sorely troubled by this, for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time, and had been very devoted to Leif, when the latter was a child. Leif severely reprimanded his companions, and prepared to go in search of him, taking twelve men with him. They had proceeded but a short distance from the house, when they were met by Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once that his foster-father was in lively spirits. * * * Leif addressed him, and asked: ‘Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and astray from the others’. In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him; but after a time he addressed them in the Northern tongue: ‘I did not go much further [than you], and yet I have something of novelty to relate. I have found vines and grapes.’ ‘Is this indeed true, foster-father?’ said Leif. ‘Of a certainty it is true’, quoth he, ‘for I was born where there is not lack of either grapes or vines.’ They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his shipmates: ‘We will now divide our labours, and each day will either gather grapes or cut vines and fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my ship.’ They acted upon this advice, and it is said, that their after-boat was filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when the spring came, they made their ship ready, and sailed away; and from its products Leif gave the land a name, and called it Wineland.”Finding of Wineland the Good: 66. Oxford University Press, London, 1890.[40]Winsor, Justin.Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. III:61.[41]First Voyage to Virginia,Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:301-306.[42]Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:311.[43]Discourse of Thomas Hariot,Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:326.[44]Smith’s History of Virginia, 1:122 (1629) Reprint 1819.[45]Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 502.[46]Bruce, Philip Alexander.Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 1:219. 1896.[47]Report of Francis Maguel, Spanish Archives,Brown’s Genesis of the United States: 395. 1610.[48]The History of Travaile into Virginia: 120. 1610, printed 1849.[49]Anonymous.A Perfect Description of Virginia.1649, Peter Force’s Tracts, Vol. II, 1838.[50]“Grape vines of the English stock, as well as those of their own production, bear most abundantly, if they are suffered to run near the ground, and increase very kindly by slipping; yet very few have them at all in their gardens, much less endeavor to improve them by cutting or laying. But since the first impression of this book, some vineyards have been attempted, and one is brought to perfection, of seven hundred and fifty gallons a year. The wine drinks at present greenish, but the owner doubts not of good wine, in a year or two more, and takes great delight that way.“When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing, with a vine upon it, open to the sun and air, that vine generally produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the woods. I have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than would load a London cart. And for all this, the people till of late never removed any of them into their gardens, but contented themselves throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild.” Beverly, Robert.The History of Virginia: 260. 1722, Reprint, 1855.[51]“Will fox,”i. e.intoxicate. See footnote onpage 4.[52]New English Canaan, 1632. Reprinted inForce’s Tracts, 1838.[53]Vine, much differing in the fruit, all of them very fleshy, some reasonably pleasant; others have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in swamps, and low wet Grounds. Josselyn, John, Gent.New England’s Rarities: 66. London, 1672.[54]Speaking of the Horne-bound tree (probably hornbeam from his description) he says: “This Tree growing with broad spread Armes, the vines winde their curling branches about them; which vines affoard great store of grapes, which are very big both for the grape and Cluster, sweet and good: these be of two sorts, red and white, there is likewise a smaller kind of grape which groweth in the Islands which is sooner ripe and more delectable; so that there is no knowne reason why as good wine may not be made in those parts, as well as inBurdeuax in France; being under the same degree. It is a great pittie no man sets upon such a venture, whereby he might in small time inrich himselfe, and benefit the Countrie, I know nothing which doth hinder but want of skilfull men to manage such an employment; For the countrey is hot enough, the ground good enough, and many convenient hills lye towards the south Sunne, as if they were there placed for the purpose.” Wood, William.New England’s Prospect: 20. London, 1634.[55]Lawson, John.History of North Carolina: 169-171. 1714, Reprint 1860.[56]Lawson, John.History of North Carolina: 141. 1714, Reprint 1860.[57]Ib.: 184-189.[58]Beverly, Robert.History of Virginia: 105-107. 1722, Reprint 1855.[59]Transactions American Philosophical Society, 1:191-193. 1769-71.[60]The True American, Philadelphia, March 24, 1800.[61]But little is known of Dr. James Mease other than that he was one of the editors ofThe Domestic Encyclopedia, a Fellow of theAmerican Philosophical Societyand Vice-President of thePhiladelphia Agricultural Society. That he was a student of American grapes is shown in his letter of transmissal of Bartram’s paper to theMedical Repositoryin which he says: “It is my present intention to publish the description of one species of vine every year in Latin and English, with a coloured plate, and I had made arrangements for the publication of the first fascicle last year; but the very unfavourable season, which had prevented the ripening of the species (Bland’s Grape) I had resolved first to describe, obliging me to defer the task until the present year, when I hope the weather will prove more favourable. Medical gentlemen, and others fond of natural history, and anxious to have the description of American vines and their classification completed, will have it much in their power to assist my undertaking. I have taken measures to have theBullor Bullet grape of Carolina and Georgia sent me; but I shall nevertheless be much indebted for any specimens of the plant that may be transmitted.”[62]The same year, 1804, Mease published Bartram’s paper, with some omissions, in theMedical Repository(Second Hexade, 1:19) under the heading, “Account of the Species, Hybrids, and other Varieties of the Vine of North-America. By Mr. William Bartram, of Pennsylvania.” The same paper was again published in 1830 in Prince’sA Treatise on the Vine, pp. 216-220.[63]Bartram states that “bull” is an abbreviation of bullet; the grapes being so called because they were of the size of a bullet. He held that the name “taurina” applied to the species was not proper.[64]Johnson’s Rural Economy: 155-197. New Brunswick, N. J., 1806.[65]McMahon’s Gardening: 226-241. Philadelphia, Pa., 1806.[66]American Farmer, 8:116. Baltimore, 1826.[67]Adlum, John.Cultivation of the Vine: 149. Second Edition, Washington, 1828.[68]John Adlum, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1759 and died at Georgetown, D. C., in 1836. Adlum was one of the first men to see clearly the possibility of improving the wild grapes of America and of bringing them under cultivation. He published accounts of this fruit in hisCultivation of the Vineand in the agricultural papers of his time, thereby aiding in bringing it into public notice as a cultivated plant. At “The Vineyard”, near Georgetown, he established an experimental plantation of grapes from which he distributed many vines, chief of which were those of the Catawba, a variety for whose dissemination he is largely responsible. Adlum tried without avail to have the national government found an experimental farm for the culture of grapes and his effort was one of the first to secure governmental aid in agricultural experimentation. Beside his work with the grape, Adlum was deeply interested in other phases of agriculture and in the scientific movements of his time. He was a soldier of the Revolution, a brigadier-general in the militia of Pennsylvania, a county judge, and a civil engineer and surveyor. In spite of his work in the early part of the last century for agriculture and for his State and country, Adlum was practically unknown to the present generation until a sketch of his life and work appeared in Bailey’sThe Evolution of Our Native Fruitsfrom which this sketch is written. Adlum’s memory is perpetuated in the name of the beautiful climbing fumitory of one of the Northern Atlantic States,Adlumnia cirhosa, bestowed upon him by his contemporary, Rafinesque. (For a more complete account of Adlum’s life, see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits, pp. 50-61.)[69]Adlum, John.Cultivation of the Vine.Preface. 1823.[70]For a full account of Dufour’s attempts to grow European grapes see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits, pp. 21-42.[71]Rafinesque has also preserved for us the names of many of the vine-growers of his time. The following is his list: “Wishing to preserve the names of the public benefactors who had in 1825 established our first vineyards, I herewith insert their names. They are independent of the vineyards of York, Vevay, and Vincennes.“In New York, George Gibbs, Swift, Prince, Lansing, Loubat, etc.“In Pennsylvania, Carr, James, Potter, J. Webb, Legaux, Echelberger, E. Bonsall, Stoys, Lemoine, Rapp.“In Delaware, Broome, J. Gibbs, etc.“In Maryland, Adlum, W. Bernie, C. Varle, R. Sinclair, W. Miles, etc.“In Virginia, Lockhart, Zane, R. Weir, Noel, J. Browne, J. Duling, etc.“In Carolina, Habersham, Noisette, etc.“In Georgia, Maurick, James Gardiner, S. Grimes, Checteau, M’Call.“In New Jersey, Cooper at Camden. Another at Mount Holly.“In Ohio, Gen. Harrison, Longworth, Dufour, etc.“In Indiana, Rapp of Harmony, the French of Vincennes.“In Alabama, Dr. S. Brown, at Eagleville.”Continuing, he gives an idea of grape production in 1830:—“The average crop of wine with us is 300 gallons per acre. At York, where 2700 vines are put on one acre, each vine has often produced a quart of wine, and thus 675 gallons per acre, value $675 in 1823, besides $200 for 5000 cuttings. One acre of vineyard did then let for $200 or 300, thus value of the acre about $5000: This was in poor soil unfit for wheat, and for mere Claret.“Now in 1830, that common French Claret often sells only at 50 cents the gallon, the income must be less. I hope our claret may in time be sold for 25 cents the gallon, and the table grapes at one cent the lb. and even then an acre of vineyard will give an income of $75, and be worth $1000 the acre.“The greatest check to this cultivation is the time required for grapes to bear well, from 3 to 6 years: our farmers wishing to have quick yearly crops; but then when a vineyard is set and in bearing, it will last forever, the vines themselves lasting from 60 to 100 years, and are easily re-placed as they decay.“The next check is the precarious crops if badly managed. Every year is not equally plentiful and sometimes there is a total failure when rains drown the blossoms; but an extra good crop of 500 or 600 gallons commonly follows and covers their loss.” Rafinesque, C. S.American Manual of the Grape Vines., Philadelphia. 1830. pp. 43-45.[72]Tradition relates that the first Scuppernong vine known by civilized man was found on the coast of North Carolina by Amadas and Barlowe in 1584 and was transplanted by them to Roanoke Island. An old vine of great diameter of stem and spread of vine, gnarled in trunk and branch, evidently of great age, is known as the “Mother Scuppernong” and is supposed to be the vine transplanted in 1584.[73]Calvin Jones writing June 17, 1817, in theAmerican Farmer,3:332, from Raleigh, North Carolina, gives the following account of the name Scuppernong: “This grape & wine, had the name of Scuppernong, given to them by Henderson & myself, in compliment to Jas. Blount, of Scuppernong, who first diffused a general knowledge of it in several well written communications in our paper—and it is cultivated with more success on that river, than in any other part of the state, perhaps, except the Island of Roanoke.” It is worthy of note that Scuppernong is largely a sea-board name forVitis rotundifoliaand is not commonly applied to it outside of the Atlantic States.[74]There is some evidence to show that the Clinton contains Labrusca blood.[75]Buchanan, Robert.Grape Culture: 61. 1850.[76]British Parliamentary Papers (Library of Congress), Vol. 30. 1859.

FOOTNOTES:

[1]De Candolle, Alphonse.Origin of Cultivated Plants: 191. 1882.

[2]Translation of Dryden.

[3]Perhaps the most marked distinguishing feature between ancient and modern grape-growing is the training of vines to trees as indicated in the above verse. Pliny says of this practice: “In Campania they attach the vine to the poplar; embracing the tree to which it is thus wedded, the vine grasps the branches with its amorous arms, and as it climbs, holds on with its knotted trunk till it has reached the very summit; the height being sometimes so stupendous that the vintager when hired, is wont to stipulate for his funeral pile and grave at the owner’s expense.”

[4]Bailey gives the following interpretation of the word “fox” and its derivatives as applied to grapes: “The term fox-grape was evidently applied to various kinds of native grapes in the early days, although it is now restricted to theVitis labruscaof the Atlantic slope. Several explanations have been given of the origin of the name fox-grape, some supposing that it came from a belief that foxes eat the grapes, others that the odor of the grape suggests that of the fox—an opinion to which Beverly subscribed nearly two centuries ago—and still others thinking that it was suggested by some resemblance of the leaves to a fox’s track. William Bartram, writing at the beginning of this century, in the Medical Repository, is pronounced in his convictions: ‘The strong, rancid smell of its ripe fruit, very like the effluvia arising from the body of the fox, gave rise to the specific name of this vine, and not, as many have imagined, from its being the favourite food of the animal; for the fox (at least the American species) seldom eats grapes or other fruit if he can get animal food.’ I am inclined to suggest, however, that the name may have originated from the lively foxing or intoxicating qualities of the poor wine which was made from the wild grapes. At the present day we speak of ‘foxiness’ when we wish to recall the musk-like flavor of the wildVitis labrusca; but this use of the term is of later origin, and was suggested by the name of the grape.” Bailey, L. H.Evolution of Our Native Fruits: 5. 1898.

[5]The phylloxera (Phylloxera vastatrixPlanch.) has four forms: the leaf-gall form, the root form, the winged form, and the sexual form. Individual leaf insects produce from 500 to 600 eggs, the root insect about 100, the winged insect from 3 to 8, and the sexual insect but 1. The last is laid in the fall on old wood; the following spring a louse hatches from it and at once goes to the upper surface of a leaf and inserts its beak. The irritation thus produced causes a gall to form on the lower side of the leaf. In fifteen days the louse becomes a full-grown wingless female and proceeds to fill the gall with eggs after which it dies. In about a week females hatch from the eggs and migrate to form new colonies. Several generations of females occur in a summer. At the approach of winter the lice go into the ground where they remain dormant until spring when they attack the roots forming galls analogous to those on the leaves and passing through a series of generations similar to those above ground. In the fall of the second year some of the root forms give rise to winged females which fly to neighboring vines. These lay eggs in groups of two or four on the wood of the grape. The eggs are of two sizes; from the smaller size, males hatch in nine or ten days; from the larger, females. In the sexual stage no food is taken and the insects quickly pair. The female produces an egg which fills its entire body and after three or four days lays it, this being the winter egg, the beginning of the cycle.There are no remedies worthy the name and the only efficient preventive is to graft susceptible varieties on resistant stocks. Species are resistant about in the order named:V. rotundifolia,V. riparia,V. rupestris,V. cordifolia,V. berlandieri,V. cinerea,V. aestivalis,V. candicans,V. labrusca,V. vinifera.

There are no remedies worthy the name and the only efficient preventive is to graft susceptible varieties on resistant stocks. Species are resistant about in the order named:V. rotundifolia,V. riparia,V. rupestris,V. cordifolia,V. berlandieri,V. cinerea,V. aestivalis,V. candicans,V. labrusca,V. vinifera.

[6]Delaware wrote as follows: “In every boske and hedge, and not farr from our pallisade gates we have thousands of goodly vines running along and leaving to every tree, which yealds a plentiful grape in their kinde. Let me appeale, then, to knowledge if these naturall vines were planted, dressed and ordered by skilfull vinearoons, whether we might not make a perfect grape and fruitfull vintage in short time?” Delaware’s Relation.Brown’s Genesis of the United States.1611.

[7]Discourse of the Old Company,British State Papers, Vol. III:40 SeeVirginia Magazine of History, Vol. I:159.

[8]Laws and Orders of Assembly, Feb. 16, 1623.McDonald Papers, Vol. I:97. Va. State Library.

[9]The clause in this act reads: “That all workers upon corne and tobacco shall this spring plant five vyne plants per pol, and the next year, before the first day of March, 20 per pol, upon penaltie to forfeite one barrell of corne for every one that shall make default.”

[10]Roger Beverly, writing a century later, describes the early grape-growing in Virginia as follows: “The Year before the Massacre,Anno1622, which destroyed so many good projects for Virginia; some French vignerons were sent thither to make an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: ‘That it far excelled their own country ofLanguedoc, The vines growing in great abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very cuttings, the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had not heard of the like in any other country.’ Neither was this out of the way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine, and of the plants sent thither from England.”Beverly’s Virginia, Second Edition: 107. 1722.

[11]Fiske, John.Old Virginia and Her Neighbors.Vol. II:372, 385.

[12]American Farmer, Baltimore, 11:35. 1829-30.Ib., 12:396. 1830-31.

[13]Dankers, Jasper, and Sluyter, Peter.Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80: 130.

[14]Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Holland Documents, 1603-1656. Vol. I:277.

[15]The grant of the bounty is recorded in Volume II,Deeds of New York, page 87, on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany. It runs as follows:—“Whereas Paul Richards an inhabitant of this Citty of New York hath made knowne to mee his intent to plant vines at a certaine Plantation that hee hath upon Long Island, called the little ffiefe, which if it succeed, may redound very much to the future benefitt and advantage of the inhabitants within this Government; and in regard, it will require much labour and a considerable charge to provide vines and to p’pare the ground and make it fitt for production of wines; ffor an Encouragemt to the said Paul Richards in his proceedings therein, I have thought fitt to grant unto him these following privileges (viz.)“That all wines of the growth of such vines as the said Paul Richards shall plant, or cause to bee planted at the place aforesaid, shall be free from any kind of impositions for ever if sold in grosse, and not by retaile:“That the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes shall have the privilege to have such wines sold by retaile in any one house in New York for the term of thirty years to come, from the time of the first selling of his wines, free from all imposts or excise:“That every person who shall hereafter for thirty years to come, plant vines within any place in this Government, shall upon the first yeares improvement pay unto the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes, five shillings for every acre so planted as an acknowledgement of his being the first undertaker and planter of vines in these parts. For the confirmacon of the privileges above specified, I have hereunto put my hand and seale.“Given at ffort James in New York this 10th day of January, 1664. RIC. NICOLLS.”

[15]The grant of the bounty is recorded in Volume II,Deeds of New York, page 87, on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany. It runs as follows:—

“Whereas Paul Richards an inhabitant of this Citty of New York hath made knowne to mee his intent to plant vines at a certaine Plantation that hee hath upon Long Island, called the little ffiefe, which if it succeed, may redound very much to the future benefitt and advantage of the inhabitants within this Government; and in regard, it will require much labour and a considerable charge to provide vines and to p’pare the ground and make it fitt for production of wines; ffor an Encouragemt to the said Paul Richards in his proceedings therein, I have thought fitt to grant unto him these following privileges (viz.)

“That all wines of the growth of such vines as the said Paul Richards shall plant, or cause to bee planted at the place aforesaid, shall be free from any kind of impositions for ever if sold in grosse, and not by retaile:

“That the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes shall have the privilege to have such wines sold by retaile in any one house in New York for the term of thirty years to come, from the time of the first selling of his wines, free from all imposts or excise:

“That every person who shall hereafter for thirty years to come, plant vines within any place in this Government, shall upon the first yeares improvement pay unto the said Paul Richards, his heirs, executors, or assignes, five shillings for every acre so planted as an acknowledgement of his being the first undertaker and planter of vines in these parts. For the confirmacon of the privileges above specified, I have hereunto put my hand and seale.

“Given at ffort James in New York this 10th day of January, 1664. RIC. NICOLLS.”

[16]Bellomont’s letter is as follows: “As to propagating vines in these plantations to supply all of the dominions of the Crown, I can easily make that appear. In the first place Nature has given us an index in these Plantations that points to us what may be done in that by the help of art. There grows wild grapes in all of the woods here in very great abundance; I have observed them in many places but especially above Albany on the side of the Hudson river where the vines all along twine around great trees and fair clusters of grapes appear sometimes above 30 foot from the ground. I have eaten of the wild grapes which I thought tastefull enough, only somewhat harsh as an effect of their wildness.” Then follows an account of how the French had previously made wine in Canada but that the Court of France had forbade its being made fearing that it might be prejudicial to the wine trade of the French. Earl of Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, Nov. 28, 1700.Documents Relating to Colonial History of the State of New York, 4:787.

[17]Francis Higginson wrote in 1630: “excellent Vines are here up and downe in the Woods. Our Governour hath already planted a Vineyard with great hope of encrease.”

[18]Bellomont records that a company of French immigrants had made good wine in Rhode Island toward the close of the 17th century but they were driven out of the Colony by the English and the industry ceased.N. Y. Col. Doc., 4:787.

[19]American Farmer, Baltimore, 10:387. 1828-29.

[20]American Farmer, Baltimore, 10:387. 1828-29.Ib., 11:172. 1829-30.

[21]Vol. I:117-198. 1769-71.

[22]All that is known of the life of Edward Antill is found inJohnson’s Rural Economywhere he is spoken of as “Mr. Antill, late of Middlesex County, New-Jersey, a gentleman who cultivated the grape with sedulous attention.”Johnson’s Rural Economy: 164. 1806.

[23]Legaux’s paper is found as a treatise on the cultivation of the vine inThe True Americanof March 24, 1800. The article contains about 2000 words, the main part of it being “A Statement of the Expense and Income of a Vineyard, Made on Four Acres of Land, situated in Pennsylvania, in the 40th Degree of Latitude.”Of Legaux’s life, little is known, other than that he was a French vine-grower with an experimental vineyard, as he says in the above article, at “Spring Mill, 13 miles N. N. W. from Philadelphia.” Johnson speaks of Legaux as a philanthropist; McMahon calls him a “gentleman of Worth and Science”; while Rafinesque accuses him of fraud and deception in the matter of calling the native grapes Bland and Alexander,MadeiraandCape.Judging the man from his article inThe True Americanand from the words of his contemporaries, he was a capable, enthusiastic and intelligent grape-grower. His philanthropy is more doubtful. It is true that he distributed many grape plants but as he himself says to “fellow citizens possessing pecuniary means.” That he practiced deceit in the matter of the introduction of the Alexander as the Cape is probable. However, his deceit, if such it were, may be forgotten and he should be remembered as the chief disseminator of the Alexander, the first distinctive American variety of commercial value.

Of Legaux’s life, little is known, other than that he was a French vine-grower with an experimental vineyard, as he says in the above article, at “Spring Mill, 13 miles N. N. W. from Philadelphia.” Johnson speaks of Legaux as a philanthropist; McMahon calls him a “gentleman of Worth and Science”; while Rafinesque accuses him of fraud and deception in the matter of calling the native grapes Bland and Alexander,MadeiraandCape.

Judging the man from his article inThe True Americanand from the words of his contemporaries, he was a capable, enthusiastic and intelligent grape-grower. His philanthropy is more doubtful. It is true that he distributed many grape plants but as he himself says to “fellow citizens possessing pecuniary means.” That he practiced deceit in the matter of the introduction of the Alexander as the Cape is probable. However, his deceit, if such it were, may be forgotten and he should be remembered as the chief disseminator of the Alexander, the first distinctive American variety of commercial value.

[24]The True American, March 24, 1800.

[25]Johnson, S. W.,Rural Economy: 156. New Brunswick, N. J., 1806.

[26]John James Dufour, born in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, in 1763, came to America in 1796 to engage in grape-growing and wine-making. An account of his work is given in the text. In 1826 Dufour published theVine Dresser’s Guide, which became the authority on the culture of this fruit at that time. Dufour must be remembered for this book, for the dissemination of the Cape or Alexander grape, and as one of the pioneer vineyardists and wine-makers of the New World.

[27]Dufour, John James.Vine Dresser’s Guide: 307. 1826.

[28]U. S. Statutes at Large, 3:374.

[29]American State Papers, Public Lands, 3:396.

[30]For fuller accounts of this dramatic episode in French and American history, and in American agriculture, see:The Napoleonic Exiles in America, J. S. Reeves, Johns Hopkins University Studies, 23 Series, pp. 530-656;The Bonapartists in Alabama, A. B. Lyon,Gulf State Historical Magazine, March, 1903;The French Grant in Alabama, G. Whitfield Jr.,Ala. Hist. Soc., Vol. IV;The Vine and Olive Colony, T. C. McCorvey,Alabama Historical Reports, April, 1885.

[31]The last official account of this colony in the records of the United States Government is found inAmerican State Papers, Vol. III. “In a letter of Frederick Ravesies to the treasury department dated January 18, 1828, is the following: ‘We have suffered severely from the unparalleled drought of the last summer; many of our largest and finest looking vines, which had just commenced bearing luxuriantly, were totally killed by the dry hot weather. Yet, notwithstanding this misfortune, the grantees, with increased diligence, are using every exertion to procure others which are thought to be more congenial to the soil and climate, and are now generally engaged in replanting.’” Quoted fromStudies in Southern and Alabama History, 1904:131.

[32]William Robert Prince, fourth proprietor of the Prince Nursery and Linnæan Botanic Garden, Flushing, Long Island, was born in 1795 and died in 1869. Prince was without question the most capable horticulturist of his time and an economic botanist of note. His love of horticulture and botany was a heritage from at least three paternal ancestors, all noted in these branches of science, and all of whom he apparently surpassed in mental capacity, intellectual training and energy. He was a prolific writer, being the author of three horticultural works which will always take high rank among those of Prince’s time. These were:A Treatise on the Vine,Pomological Manual, in two volumes, and theManual of Roses, beside which he was a lifelong contributor to the horticultural press. All of Prince’s writings are characterized by a clear, vigorous style and by accuracy in statement. His works are almost wholly lacking the ornate and pretentious furbelows of most of his contemporaries though it must be confessed that he fell into the then common fault of following European writers somewhat slavishly. During the lifetime of Wm. R. Prince, and that of his father Wm. Prince, who died in 1842, the Prince Nursery at Flushing was the center of the horticultural nursery interests of the country; it was the clearing-house for foreign and American horticultural plants, for new varieties and for information regarding plants of all kinds.

[33]Prince, Wm. R.A Treatise on the Vine: 337. 1830.

[34]Nicholas Longworth, known as the “father of American grape culture”, was born in 1783, in Newark, New Jersey. At an early age he went West making his home in Cincinnati where he became a lawyer, banker, and a man of large business affairs in what was then the far frontier. From his boyhood Longworth was interested in horticulture and as a young man became greatly interested in native grapes. He was one of the men to whom John Adlum sent the Catawba and he became its disseminator and a promoter for the region in which he lived, making this grape the first great American grape and Cincinnati the center of the foremost grape-growing region of the Continent. He was the first vineyardist to make wine on a large scale and perfected methods of making wine from the native grapes so that the product was comparable to that from the best wine cellars of Europe. Longworth introduced the first cultivated variety of the wild black raspberry,Rubus occidentalis, under the name of the Ohio Everbearing. His interest in the strawberry was second only to that in the grape and he not only did much to encourage its cultivation in America but also, after a long controversy with horticulturists and botanists, fully established the fact that many varieties of this fruit are infertile with themselves and that under cultivation infertile varieties must have sorts planted near them capable of cross-pollinating them. Longworth took a deep interest in horticulture generally and gathered about him a group of pioneer horticulturists who did much for American fruit-growing in the middle of the nineteenth century, in many respects molding and guiding the horticulture of that time in this country. Longworth wrote much for the contemporary horticultural magazines and published two small books, “The Cultivation of the Grape and Manufacture of Wine” and “Character and Habits of the Strawberry Plant.” He died in 1863, aged 80, at Cincinnati, one of the most distinguished, enterprising and wealthy citizens of his State. For further discussion of his life see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits: 61-65. 1898.

[35]Probably the northern part of the vine region of France; the Jura mountains are in the east central part.

[36]Transactions New York State Agricultural Society, 6:689. 1846.

[37]Fuller, Andrew S.Record of Horticulture: 21. 1866.

[38]There is a wild grape vine (probablyVitis aestivalis) near Daphne, Alabama, on the shores of Mobile Bay, known as the “General Jackson vine” because of General Jackson having camped under it during the war with the Seminole Indians in 1817-18, which for age and size is truly remarkable. Mr. E. Q. Norton of Daphne writes of this vine as follows: “There is little known regarding the Jackson grape vine beyond the fact that the oldest man living here when I came here—20 years ago—told me that the Indians told him when he came here as a boy—90 years ago—that the vine was at that time an old one, which had been growing longer than any of them could remember. It was 27 inches through the trunk, four feet above the ground, when I measured it ten years since, and the vines were running over the surrounding trees for many rods. The grapes were very small, quite hard and not very juicy.”

[39]The following is an account of the discovery of grapes in Vinland translated from the Icelandic manuscript by Reeves:“When they had completed their house Leif said to his companions, ‘I propose now to divide our company into two groups, and to set about an exploration of the country; one half of our party shall remain at home at the house, while the other half shall investigate the land, and they must not go beyond a point from which they can return home the same evening, and are not to separate. Thus they did for a time; Leif himself, by turns, joined the exploring party or remained behind at the house. * * *“It was discovered one evening that one of their party was missing, and this proved to be Tyrker the German. Leif was sorely troubled by this, for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time, and had been very devoted to Leif, when the latter was a child. Leif severely reprimanded his companions, and prepared to go in search of him, taking twelve men with him. They had proceeded but a short distance from the house, when they were met by Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once that his foster-father was in lively spirits. * * * Leif addressed him, and asked: ‘Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and astray from the others’. In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him; but after a time he addressed them in the Northern tongue: ‘I did not go much further [than you], and yet I have something of novelty to relate. I have found vines and grapes.’ ‘Is this indeed true, foster-father?’ said Leif. ‘Of a certainty it is true’, quoth he, ‘for I was born where there is not lack of either grapes or vines.’ They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his shipmates: ‘We will now divide our labours, and each day will either gather grapes or cut vines and fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my ship.’ They acted upon this advice, and it is said, that their after-boat was filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when the spring came, they made their ship ready, and sailed away; and from its products Leif gave the land a name, and called it Wineland.”Finding of Wineland the Good: 66. Oxford University Press, London, 1890.

[39]The following is an account of the discovery of grapes in Vinland translated from the Icelandic manuscript by Reeves:

“When they had completed their house Leif said to his companions, ‘I propose now to divide our company into two groups, and to set about an exploration of the country; one half of our party shall remain at home at the house, while the other half shall investigate the land, and they must not go beyond a point from which they can return home the same evening, and are not to separate. Thus they did for a time; Leif himself, by turns, joined the exploring party or remained behind at the house. * * *

“It was discovered one evening that one of their party was missing, and this proved to be Tyrker the German. Leif was sorely troubled by this, for Tyrker had lived with Leif and his father for a long time, and had been very devoted to Leif, when the latter was a child. Leif severely reprimanded his companions, and prepared to go in search of him, taking twelve men with him. They had proceeded but a short distance from the house, when they were met by Tyrker, whom they received most cordially. Leif observed at once that his foster-father was in lively spirits. * * * Leif addressed him, and asked: ‘Wherefore art thou so belated, foster-father mine, and astray from the others’. In the beginning Tyrker spoke for some time in German, rolling his eyes, and grinning, and they could not understand him; but after a time he addressed them in the Northern tongue: ‘I did not go much further [than you], and yet I have something of novelty to relate. I have found vines and grapes.’ ‘Is this indeed true, foster-father?’ said Leif. ‘Of a certainty it is true’, quoth he, ‘for I was born where there is not lack of either grapes or vines.’ They slept the night through, and on the morrow Leif said to his shipmates: ‘We will now divide our labours, and each day will either gather grapes or cut vines and fell trees, so as to obtain a cargo of these for my ship.’ They acted upon this advice, and it is said, that their after-boat was filled with grapes. A cargo sufficient for the ship was cut, and when the spring came, they made their ship ready, and sailed away; and from its products Leif gave the land a name, and called it Wineland.”Finding of Wineland the Good: 66. Oxford University Press, London, 1890.

[40]Winsor, Justin.Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. III:61.

[41]First Voyage to Virginia,Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:301-306.

[42]Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:311.

[43]Discourse of Thomas Hariot,Hakluyt’s Voyages, 3:326.

[44]Smith’s History of Virginia, 1:122 (1629) Reprint 1819.

[45]Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 502.

[46]Bruce, Philip Alexander.Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century, Vol. 1:219. 1896.

[47]Report of Francis Maguel, Spanish Archives,Brown’s Genesis of the United States: 395. 1610.

[48]The History of Travaile into Virginia: 120. 1610, printed 1849.

[49]Anonymous.A Perfect Description of Virginia.1649, Peter Force’s Tracts, Vol. II, 1838.

[50]“Grape vines of the English stock, as well as those of their own production, bear most abundantly, if they are suffered to run near the ground, and increase very kindly by slipping; yet very few have them at all in their gardens, much less endeavor to improve them by cutting or laying. But since the first impression of this book, some vineyards have been attempted, and one is brought to perfection, of seven hundred and fifty gallons a year. The wine drinks at present greenish, but the owner doubts not of good wine, in a year or two more, and takes great delight that way.“When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing, with a vine upon it, open to the sun and air, that vine generally produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the woods. I have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than would load a London cart. And for all this, the people till of late never removed any of them into their gardens, but contented themselves throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild.” Beverly, Robert.The History of Virginia: 260. 1722, Reprint, 1855.

“When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing, with a vine upon it, open to the sun and air, that vine generally produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the woods. I have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than would load a London cart. And for all this, the people till of late never removed any of them into their gardens, but contented themselves throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild.” Beverly, Robert.The History of Virginia: 260. 1722, Reprint, 1855.

[51]“Will fox,”i. e.intoxicate. See footnote onpage 4.

[52]New English Canaan, 1632. Reprinted inForce’s Tracts, 1838.

[53]Vine, much differing in the fruit, all of them very fleshy, some reasonably pleasant; others have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in swamps, and low wet Grounds. Josselyn, John, Gent.New England’s Rarities: 66. London, 1672.

[54]Speaking of the Horne-bound tree (probably hornbeam from his description) he says: “This Tree growing with broad spread Armes, the vines winde their curling branches about them; which vines affoard great store of grapes, which are very big both for the grape and Cluster, sweet and good: these be of two sorts, red and white, there is likewise a smaller kind of grape which groweth in the Islands which is sooner ripe and more delectable; so that there is no knowne reason why as good wine may not be made in those parts, as well as inBurdeuax in France; being under the same degree. It is a great pittie no man sets upon such a venture, whereby he might in small time inrich himselfe, and benefit the Countrie, I know nothing which doth hinder but want of skilfull men to manage such an employment; For the countrey is hot enough, the ground good enough, and many convenient hills lye towards the south Sunne, as if they were there placed for the purpose.” Wood, William.New England’s Prospect: 20. London, 1634.

[55]Lawson, John.History of North Carolina: 169-171. 1714, Reprint 1860.

[56]Lawson, John.History of North Carolina: 141. 1714, Reprint 1860.

[57]Ib.: 184-189.

[58]Beverly, Robert.History of Virginia: 105-107. 1722, Reprint 1855.

[59]Transactions American Philosophical Society, 1:191-193. 1769-71.

[60]The True American, Philadelphia, March 24, 1800.

[61]But little is known of Dr. James Mease other than that he was one of the editors ofThe Domestic Encyclopedia, a Fellow of theAmerican Philosophical Societyand Vice-President of thePhiladelphia Agricultural Society. That he was a student of American grapes is shown in his letter of transmissal of Bartram’s paper to theMedical Repositoryin which he says: “It is my present intention to publish the description of one species of vine every year in Latin and English, with a coloured plate, and I had made arrangements for the publication of the first fascicle last year; but the very unfavourable season, which had prevented the ripening of the species (Bland’s Grape) I had resolved first to describe, obliging me to defer the task until the present year, when I hope the weather will prove more favourable. Medical gentlemen, and others fond of natural history, and anxious to have the description of American vines and their classification completed, will have it much in their power to assist my undertaking. I have taken measures to have theBullor Bullet grape of Carolina and Georgia sent me; but I shall nevertheless be much indebted for any specimens of the plant that may be transmitted.”

[62]The same year, 1804, Mease published Bartram’s paper, with some omissions, in theMedical Repository(Second Hexade, 1:19) under the heading, “Account of the Species, Hybrids, and other Varieties of the Vine of North-America. By Mr. William Bartram, of Pennsylvania.” The same paper was again published in 1830 in Prince’sA Treatise on the Vine, pp. 216-220.

[63]Bartram states that “bull” is an abbreviation of bullet; the grapes being so called because they were of the size of a bullet. He held that the name “taurina” applied to the species was not proper.

[64]Johnson’s Rural Economy: 155-197. New Brunswick, N. J., 1806.

[65]McMahon’s Gardening: 226-241. Philadelphia, Pa., 1806.

[66]American Farmer, 8:116. Baltimore, 1826.

[67]Adlum, John.Cultivation of the Vine: 149. Second Edition, Washington, 1828.

[68]John Adlum, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1759 and died at Georgetown, D. C., in 1836. Adlum was one of the first men to see clearly the possibility of improving the wild grapes of America and of bringing them under cultivation. He published accounts of this fruit in hisCultivation of the Vineand in the agricultural papers of his time, thereby aiding in bringing it into public notice as a cultivated plant. At “The Vineyard”, near Georgetown, he established an experimental plantation of grapes from which he distributed many vines, chief of which were those of the Catawba, a variety for whose dissemination he is largely responsible. Adlum tried without avail to have the national government found an experimental farm for the culture of grapes and his effort was one of the first to secure governmental aid in agricultural experimentation. Beside his work with the grape, Adlum was deeply interested in other phases of agriculture and in the scientific movements of his time. He was a soldier of the Revolution, a brigadier-general in the militia of Pennsylvania, a county judge, and a civil engineer and surveyor. In spite of his work in the early part of the last century for agriculture and for his State and country, Adlum was practically unknown to the present generation until a sketch of his life and work appeared in Bailey’sThe Evolution of Our Native Fruitsfrom which this sketch is written. Adlum’s memory is perpetuated in the name of the beautiful climbing fumitory of one of the Northern Atlantic States,Adlumnia cirhosa, bestowed upon him by his contemporary, Rafinesque. (For a more complete account of Adlum’s life, see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits, pp. 50-61.)

[69]Adlum, John.Cultivation of the Vine.Preface. 1823.

[70]For a full account of Dufour’s attempts to grow European grapes see Bailey’sEvolution of Our Native Fruits, pp. 21-42.

[71]Rafinesque has also preserved for us the names of many of the vine-growers of his time. The following is his list: “Wishing to preserve the names of the public benefactors who had in 1825 established our first vineyards, I herewith insert their names. They are independent of the vineyards of York, Vevay, and Vincennes.“In New York, George Gibbs, Swift, Prince, Lansing, Loubat, etc.“In Pennsylvania, Carr, James, Potter, J. Webb, Legaux, Echelberger, E. Bonsall, Stoys, Lemoine, Rapp.“In Delaware, Broome, J. Gibbs, etc.“In Maryland, Adlum, W. Bernie, C. Varle, R. Sinclair, W. Miles, etc.“In Virginia, Lockhart, Zane, R. Weir, Noel, J. Browne, J. Duling, etc.“In Carolina, Habersham, Noisette, etc.“In Georgia, Maurick, James Gardiner, S. Grimes, Checteau, M’Call.“In New Jersey, Cooper at Camden. Another at Mount Holly.“In Ohio, Gen. Harrison, Longworth, Dufour, etc.“In Indiana, Rapp of Harmony, the French of Vincennes.“In Alabama, Dr. S. Brown, at Eagleville.”Continuing, he gives an idea of grape production in 1830:—“The average crop of wine with us is 300 gallons per acre. At York, where 2700 vines are put on one acre, each vine has often produced a quart of wine, and thus 675 gallons per acre, value $675 in 1823, besides $200 for 5000 cuttings. One acre of vineyard did then let for $200 or 300, thus value of the acre about $5000: This was in poor soil unfit for wheat, and for mere Claret.“Now in 1830, that common French Claret often sells only at 50 cents the gallon, the income must be less. I hope our claret may in time be sold for 25 cents the gallon, and the table grapes at one cent the lb. and even then an acre of vineyard will give an income of $75, and be worth $1000 the acre.“The greatest check to this cultivation is the time required for grapes to bear well, from 3 to 6 years: our farmers wishing to have quick yearly crops; but then when a vineyard is set and in bearing, it will last forever, the vines themselves lasting from 60 to 100 years, and are easily re-placed as they decay.“The next check is the precarious crops if badly managed. Every year is not equally plentiful and sometimes there is a total failure when rains drown the blossoms; but an extra good crop of 500 or 600 gallons commonly follows and covers their loss.” Rafinesque, C. S.American Manual of the Grape Vines., Philadelphia. 1830. pp. 43-45.

“In New York, George Gibbs, Swift, Prince, Lansing, Loubat, etc.

“In Pennsylvania, Carr, James, Potter, J. Webb, Legaux, Echelberger, E. Bonsall, Stoys, Lemoine, Rapp.

“In Delaware, Broome, J. Gibbs, etc.

“In Maryland, Adlum, W. Bernie, C. Varle, R. Sinclair, W. Miles, etc.

“In Virginia, Lockhart, Zane, R. Weir, Noel, J. Browne, J. Duling, etc.

“In Carolina, Habersham, Noisette, etc.

“In Georgia, Maurick, James Gardiner, S. Grimes, Checteau, M’Call.

“In New Jersey, Cooper at Camden. Another at Mount Holly.

“In Ohio, Gen. Harrison, Longworth, Dufour, etc.

“In Indiana, Rapp of Harmony, the French of Vincennes.

“In Alabama, Dr. S. Brown, at Eagleville.”

Continuing, he gives an idea of grape production in 1830:—“The average crop of wine with us is 300 gallons per acre. At York, where 2700 vines are put on one acre, each vine has often produced a quart of wine, and thus 675 gallons per acre, value $675 in 1823, besides $200 for 5000 cuttings. One acre of vineyard did then let for $200 or 300, thus value of the acre about $5000: This was in poor soil unfit for wheat, and for mere Claret.

“Now in 1830, that common French Claret often sells only at 50 cents the gallon, the income must be less. I hope our claret may in time be sold for 25 cents the gallon, and the table grapes at one cent the lb. and even then an acre of vineyard will give an income of $75, and be worth $1000 the acre.

“The greatest check to this cultivation is the time required for grapes to bear well, from 3 to 6 years: our farmers wishing to have quick yearly crops; but then when a vineyard is set and in bearing, it will last forever, the vines themselves lasting from 60 to 100 years, and are easily re-placed as they decay.

“The next check is the precarious crops if badly managed. Every year is not equally plentiful and sometimes there is a total failure when rains drown the blossoms; but an extra good crop of 500 or 600 gallons commonly follows and covers their loss.” Rafinesque, C. S.American Manual of the Grape Vines., Philadelphia. 1830. pp. 43-45.

[72]Tradition relates that the first Scuppernong vine known by civilized man was found on the coast of North Carolina by Amadas and Barlowe in 1584 and was transplanted by them to Roanoke Island. An old vine of great diameter of stem and spread of vine, gnarled in trunk and branch, evidently of great age, is known as the “Mother Scuppernong” and is supposed to be the vine transplanted in 1584.

[73]Calvin Jones writing June 17, 1817, in theAmerican Farmer,3:332, from Raleigh, North Carolina, gives the following account of the name Scuppernong: “This grape & wine, had the name of Scuppernong, given to them by Henderson & myself, in compliment to Jas. Blount, of Scuppernong, who first diffused a general knowledge of it in several well written communications in our paper—and it is cultivated with more success on that river, than in any other part of the state, perhaps, except the Island of Roanoke.” It is worthy of note that Scuppernong is largely a sea-board name forVitis rotundifoliaand is not commonly applied to it outside of the Atlantic States.

[74]There is some evidence to show that the Clinton contains Labrusca blood.

[75]Buchanan, Robert.Grape Culture: 61. 1850.

[76]British Parliamentary Papers (Library of Congress), Vol. 30. 1859.

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