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[Illustration: EDWARD STANIFORD ROGERS]
STATE OF NEW YORK--DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Fifteenth Annual Report--Vol. 3--Part II
THE
GRAPES OF NEW YORK
BY
U. P. HEDRICK
ASSISTED BY
N. O. BOOTH
O. M. TAYLOR
R. WELLINGTON
M. J. DORSEY
Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1907
II
ALBANY
J. B. LYON COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS
1908
NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,
GENEVA, N. Y., _December 31, 1907_.
_To the Honorable Board of Control of the New York Agricultural
Experiment Station_:
GENTLEMEN.--I have the honor to submit herewith Part II of the report of
this institution for the year 1907, to be known as The Grapes of New
York. It is the second in the series of fruit publications which is now
being prepared under your authority.
This volume is the result of years of recorded observations by members
of the Station staff, to which has been added the collection of a large
amount of information from practical growers of the grape. Every effort
has been made to insure completeness and accuracy of statement, and to
make the work a reliable guide as to all the varieties of grapes that
are likely to meet the attention of New York grape-growers. It is
believed that this volume will occupy a useful place in grape literature
and will be serviceable to an important industry in this State.
W. H. JORDAN,
_Director_.
PREFACE
The purpose of _The Grapes of New York_ is to record the state of
development of American grapes. The title implies that the work is being
done for a locality but in this matter New York is representative of the
whole country. The contents are: Brief historical narratives of Old
World and New World grapes; an account of the grape regions and of
grape-growing in New York, with statistics relating to the grape, wine
and grape juice industries in this State; a discussion of the species of
American grapes; and the synonymy, bibliography, economic status, and
full descriptions of all of the important varieties of American grapes.
In the footnotes will be found brief biographical sketches of those
persons who have contributed most to the evolution of the grape and to
grape-growing in America and some historical and descriptive notices of
certain things pertaining to the grape which do not belong in the text
and yet serve to give a better understanding of it or otherwise add to
the completeness of the book. Color-plates are shown of varieties which
from various standpoints are considered most important.
In the brief account of the Old World grape there is little that is new.
Its history is on record from the earliest times in the literature of
nearly all civilized peoples. A few facts, selected here and there, have
been taken to serve as an introduction to the accounts of the New World
grapes. So, too, the history of the American grape has been written by
others and, here, only the main facts have been set down as recorded in
the score or more books dealing with this fruit. A few excursions have
been made in hitherto unexplored fields. The purpose of these historical
sketches is to give the reader a proper perspective of the work in hand.
The grape is probably influenced to a greater degree by soil, climate,
and culture than any other fruit, and a discussion of its status cannot
be complete without due consideration of the environment in which it is
growing. Hence there is included as full an account of grape-growing and
of the grape regions in New York as space permits. This part of the work
may serve the prospective planter somewhat in selecting soils and
locations but as it is not written with this as a chief end, it falls
far short of some of the standard treatises on grape culture in this
respect.
Comparatively few statistics are given, only those which are necessary
to show the volume of grape products and the extent of the vineyards in
the State and country at the present time. The figures for the whole
country are surpassed by those of no other native fruit, and only by
corn and tobacco among all the domesticated native plants.
The botany of the grape has been the most perplexing problem to deal
with in the preparation of this work. The variability of the grape is so
great, and the variations are so often toward closely related species,
that it is difficult to tell where one species ends and another begins.
This, of course, has led to differences in opinions. Then, too, the
several monographers have not had the same specimens to work with; men
do not have the same powers of discrimination; and the arrangement of
botanical groups, based upon the characters of the plants and the theory
of descent with adaptive modifications, is not governed by definite
rules; hence botanical divisions are arbitrary and differ with the
judgments of the botanists who make them. For these reasons we have as
many different arrangements of species of grapes as there are men who
have worked them over.
Since this work is not written from the standpoint of the botanist but
of the horticulturist, no effort has been made to revise the botany of
the grape. But it has been necessary to select some arrangement of
species in order to make such disposition of the cultivated varieties
that their characters and relationships can best be shown. In making a
choice of the several recent classifications of American grapes, three
main considerations have been in mind: First, that the arrangement
should separate the species in the genus freely, thus decreasing the
size of the groups so that they may be more easily studied. Second, that
it should show as clearly as possible the relationships of the various
groups and of their development--the evolution of the grape. Third, that
it be an arrangement in good standing with botanists and
horticulturists. After having examined all American classifications of
grapes and all recent European ones, Bailey's classification, as set
forth in his monograph of the Vitaceae in _Gray's Synoptical Flora_, in
the _Evolution of our Native Fruits_, and in the _Cyclopedia of American
Horticulture_, was adopted.
_The Grapes of New York_ makes its chief contribution to the pomology of
the country in the description of varieties. The authors have tried to
study varieties from every point of view, not alone nor chiefly, it must
be said, with regard to their cultural value; for most of the varieties
pass out of cultivation and such information would be worthless within a
few years at most. But, rather, the effort has been to determine what
elementary or unit characters the grape possesses as shown in its
botanical and horticultural groups. The Twentieth Century begins with
the unanimous judgment of scientists that the characters of plants are
independent entities which are thrown into various relationships with
each other in individuals and groups of individuals. This conception of
unit characters lies at the foundation of plant improvement. We are but
beginning the breeding of American grapes and it has seemed to the
writer that the most important part of this undertaking is to discover
and record as far as possible these unit characters of grapes, thereby
aiding to furnish a foundation for grape-breeding. The great problem of
plant-breeding in the future will be to correlate the characters known
to exist in the plant being improved; we must know what these are before
we begin to combine and rearrange them.
The varieties are arranged alphabetically throughout, though, were
present knowledge exact enough, it would be far better to arrange them
in natural groups. Such a classification is probably possible, but it
remains for future workers to search out the relationships which the
structures and qualities of plant and fruit indicate and to group the
varieties naturally rather than alphabetically. Wherever possible in
this work, however, the relationships of varieties have been indicated
as fully as knowledge permits, thus making a start toward natural
classification.
In the lists of synonyms given, all known names for a variety used in
the American literature of the grape are brought together. These lists
ought to be useful in correcting and simplifying the nomenclature of the
grape which, like that of all of our fruits, is in more or less
confusion. It is hoped that the work may become a standard guide, for
some time to come at least, in the identification of varieties and in
nomenclature, and that it will aid originators of new grapes and
nurserymen in avoiding the duplication of names. In matters pertaining
to nomenclature, the revised rules of the American Pomological Society
have been followed, though in a few cases it has not seemed best to make
changes which their strict observance would have required. The necessity
for rules is shown by an examination of the synonymy of any considerable
number of varieties as given in the body of the work. In some cases
varieties have from ten to twenty names and very often different
varieties are found to have the same name. This chaotic condition is
confusing and burdensome and it has been one of the aims in the
preparation of the work to set straight the horticultural nomenclature
of the grape, thus lessening the difficulty and uncertainty of
identification and making the comparative study of varieties easier.
It would be impossible, and not worth while, could it be done, to give
all of the references to be found in even the standard grape literature.
Only such have been given as have been found useful by the writers or as
would serve to give the future student of the literature of grape
varieties a working basis.
A brief history of each variety is given so far as it can be determined
by correspondence and from grape literature. In these historical
sketches the originator and his method of work justly receive most
attention. The place, date and circumstances of origin, the distributor,
and the present distribution of the variety, are given when known and
are of about equal importance in the plan of this work.
The technical descriptions of grapes are all first-hand and made by
members of the present horticultural department of the Station from
living plants. But rarely has it been necessary to go to books for any
one character of a vine or fruit though the leading authorities have
been consulted in the final writing of the descriptions and
modifications made when the weight of authority has been against the
records of the Station. Some differences must be expected between
descriptions of varieties made in different years, different localities
and by different men. For most part the varieties described are growing
on the Station grounds but every opportunity has been taken to study
several specimens of each variety and especially of the fruit. In many
instances the descriptions have been submitted to the originators,
introducers, or to some recognized grape specialist.
A number of considerations have governed the selection of varieties for
full descriptions. These are: First, the value of a variety for the
commercial or amateur grower for any part of the State as determined by
the records of this Station, by reports collected from over 2000
grape-growers, and by published information from whatever source.
Second, the probable value of new sorts as determined by their behavior
elsewhere. Third, to show combinations of species or varieties, or new
characters hitherto unknown in fruit or vine, or to portray the range in
variation, or to suggest to the plant-breeder a course of future
development. Fourth, a few sorts have been described because of their
historical value--for the retrospection of the grape-grower of the
present and the future. It is needless to say that many of the varieties
described are worthless to the cultivator.
In all of the descriptions the effort has been to depict living plants
and not things existing only in books; to give a pen picture of them
that will show all of their characters. An attempt has been made, too,
to show the breeding of the plants, their relationships; to show what
combination of characters exist in the different groups of varieties; to
designate, as far as possible, the plastic types; in short to show
grapes as variable, plastic plants capable of further improvement and
not as unchangeable organisms restricted to definite forms.
It is hoped that the color-plates will be of great service in
illustrating the text. All possible means at the command of photography
and color printing have been used to make them exact reproductions. The
specimens, too, have been selected with the utmost care. In preparing
these illustrations the thought has been that technical descriptions,
however simply written, are not easily understood, and that the readiest
means of comparison and identification for the average reader would be
found in the color-plates. Through these and the accompanying
descriptions it is hoped that all who desire may acquire, with time and
patience, a knowledge of the botanical characters of grapes and thereby
an understanding of the technical descriptions. The plates have been
made under the personal supervision of the writer.
With all care possible, due allowance must yet be made for the failure
to reproduce nature exactly in the color-plates. The plates are several
removes from the fruit. Four negatives were taken of each subject with
a color filter between the lens and the fruit. A copper plate was made
from each negative, one for each of the four colors, red, yellow, black
and blue. The color-plates in the book are composed of these four
colors, combined by the camera, the artist, the horticulturist and the
printer. With all of these agencies between the fruit and the
color-plate they could not be exact reproductions. It must ever be in
mind, too, that grapes grown in different localities vary more or less
in all characters and that the reproduction can represent the fruit from
but one locality. The specimens from which the plates were made came for
most part from the Station grounds. The illustrations are life size and
as far as possible from average specimens.
Acknowledgments are due to Professor Spencer A. Beach of Ames, Iowa,
who, while in charge of this Department previous to August, 1905, had
begun the collection and organization of information on grapes, much of
which has been used in this volume; to Mr. F. H. Hall, who as Station
Editor has read the manuscripts and proof sheets and given much valuable
assistance in organizing the information presented; to Zeese-Wilkinson &
Co., through whose zeal and painstaking skill the color-plates, which
add so much to the beauty and value of the book, have been made; and
lastly to the grape-growers of New York who have given information
whenever called upon and who have generously furnished grapes for
descriptive and photographic work.
U. P. HEDRICK,
_Horticulturist, New York Agricultural Experiment Station_.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE.
PREFACE v
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS xiii
CHAPTER I.--The Old World Grape 1
CHAPTER II.--American Grapes 26
CHAPTER III.--The Viticulture of New York 68
CHAPTER IV.--Species of American Grapes 95
CHAPTER V.--The Leading Varieties of American Grapes 157
CHAPTER VI.--The Minor Varieties of American Grapes 433
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES WITH ABBREVIATIONS USED 531
INDEX 537
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTRAIT OF EDWARD STANIFORD ROGERS _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
AGAWAM 158
AMERICA 168
AMINIA 170
AUGUST GIANT 172
BACCHUS 174
BARRY 178
BERCKMANS 182
BLACK EAGLE 184
BLACK HAMBURG (REDUCED SIZE) 186
BRIGHTON 192
BRILLIANT 194
CAMPBELL EARLY 196
CANADA 200
CARMAN 202
CATAWBA 204
CHAMPION 210
CLINTON 214
COLERAIN 218
CONCORD 220
COTTAGE 222
CREVELING 224
CROTON 226
CYNTHIANA 228
DELAWARE 232
DIAMOND 236
DIANA 238
DOWNING 242
DRACUT AMBER 244
DUTCHESS 246
EARLY OHIO 248
EARLY VICTOR 250
EATON 252
ECLIPSE 254
ELVIRA 260
EMPIRE STATE 262
EUMELAN 266
GOETHE 276
GOFF 278
GREIN GOLDEN 282
HARTFORD 284
HEADLIGHT 288
HERBERT 292
HERCULES 294
HIDALGO 296
HIGHLAND 298
HYBRID FRANC 300
IONA 302
IRONCLAD 306
ISABELLA 308
IVES 312
JAMES 314
JANESVILLE 316
JEFFERSON 318
JEWEL 320
KENSINGTON 322
LADY 324
LADY WASHINGTON 326
LINDLEY 330
LUCILE 332
LUTIE 334
MCPIKE 336
MANITO 338
MARION 340
MASSASOIT 342
MERRIMAC 346
MILLS 348
MISSOURI RIESLING 350
MONTEFIORE 352
MOORE EARLY 352
MOYER 354
MUSCAT HAMBURG (REDUCED SIZE) 356
NECTAR 358
NIAGARA 360
NOAH 362
NORTON 366
OTHELLO 374
POCKLINGTON 380
RED EAGLE 384
ROCHESTER 388
ROMMEL 392
RUPESTRIS DU LOT 114
SALEM 398
SENASQUA 402
TRIUMPH 412
ULSTER 414
VERGENNES 416
_VITIS AESTIVALIS_, shoot of 138
VITIS, CANES OF SPECIES OF 100
VITIS, FLOWERS OF 104
_VITIS LABRUSCA_, SHOOT OF 150
_VITIS RIPARIA_, Shoot of 118
_VITIS ROTUNDIFOLIA_, Shoot of 108
VITIS, SEEDS OF SPECIES OF 102
_VITIS VINIFERA_, SHOOT OF 154
WALTER 420
WILDER 424
WINCHELL 426
WOODRUFF 428
WORDEN 430
WYOMING 432
WYOMING, SHOOT OF 152
THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK
CHAPTER I
THE OLD WORLD GRAPE
A single species of the grape is cultivated in the Old World. This is
_Vitis vinifera_, the grape of ancient and modern agriculture, the vine
of the allegories of sacred record and of the myths, fables and poetry
of the Old World countries. It is the vine which Adam and Eve cared
for:--
"* * * they led the vine
To wed his elm; * * *." _Milton._
It is the vine which Noah planted after the deluge; the vine of Judah
and Israel, and of the promised land. Dionysus of the Greeks, Bacchus of
the Romans, found the grape and devoted his life to spreading it; for
which he was raised to the rank of a deity--god of vines and vintages.
The history of this grape is as old as that of mankind. It has followed
civilized man from place to place throughout the world and is one of the
chief cultivated plants of temperate climates. This fruit of sacred and
profane literature has so impressed itself upon the human mind that when
we think or speak of the grape, or vine, it is the Old World species,
the vine of antiquity, that presents itself.
The history of the Old World grape goes back to prehistoric times. Seeds
of the grape are found in the remains of the Swiss lake dwellings of the
Bronze Period and entombed with the mummies of Egypt. Its printed
history is as old as that of man and is interwritten with it. According
to the botanists, the probable habitat of _Vitis vinifera_ is the region
about the Caspian Sea.[1] From here it was carried eastward into Asia
and westward into Europe and Africa. It is probable that the
Phoenicians, the earliest navigators, tradesmen and colonizers on the
Mediterranean, carried it to the countries bordering on this sea. Grape
culture was developed in this region a thousand years before Christ,
for Hesiod, who wrote at this time, gave directions for the care of the
vine which need to be changed but little for present practice in Europe.
Pliny, writing a thousand years after, quotes Hesiod as an authority on
vine culture. Vergil and Pliny, during Christ's time, gave specific
directions for the care of the vine. Vergil describes fifteen varieties
while Pliny gives even fuller descriptions of ninety-one varieties and
distinguishes fifty kinds of wine.
The authentic written history of the grape and of its culture really
begins with Vergil. Many other writers, Greeks and Romans, had discussed
the vine, but none so fully nor so well as Vergil in his Georgics, of
which the parts having to do with the vine may still be read with profit
by the grape-grower; as, for example, the following[2] in which he tells
how to cultivate and train:--
"Be mindful, when thou hast entomb'd the shoot,
With store of earth around to feed the root;
With iron teeth of rakes and prongs, to move
The crusted earth, and loosen it above.
Then exercise thy sturdy steers to plow
Between thy vines, and teach the feeble row
To mount on reeds, and wands, and, upward led,
On ashen poles to raise their forky head,
On these new crutches let them learn to walk,
'Till, swerving upwards with a stronger stalk,
They brave the winds, and, clinging to their guide,
On tops of elms at length triumphant ride."[3]
His directions for pruning are equally fitting for present practice:--
"But in their tender nonage, while they spread
Their springing leaves, and lift their infant head,
And upward while they shoot in open air,
Indulge their childhood, and the nurslings spare;
Nor exercise thy rage on new-born life;
But let thy hand supply the pruning knife,
And crop luxuriant stragglers, nor be loth
To strip the branches of their leafy growth.
But when the rooted vines with steady hold
Can clasp their elms, then, husbandman, be bold
To lop the disobedient boughs, that strayed
Beyond their ranks; let crooked steel invade
The lawless troops, which discipline disclaim,
And their surperfluous growth with rigor tame."
The history of the development of the vine from Vergil's time through
the early centuries of the Christian Era and of the Middle Ages to our
own day, is largely the history of agriculture in the southern European
countries; for the vine during this period has been the chief cultivated
plant of the Greek and Latin nations. This history should furnish most
instructive lessons in grape-growing and in grape-breeding.
But interesting and profitable as a detailed account of the development
of the Old World grape would be, the brief outline in the few preceding
paragraphs must suffice for this work. The reader who desires further
information may find it in the agricultural literature in many languages
and dating back two thousand years.
What are the characters of the European grape and how does it differ
from the native grapes of America? The Old World grape is grown for
wine; the American grapes for the table. The differences in the fruit of
the vines of the two continents are largely the differences necessary
for the two distinct purposes for which they are grown. The varieties of
_Vitis vinifera_ have a higher sugar and solid content than do those of
the American species. Because of this richness in sugar they not only
make better wine but keep much longer and can be made into raisins. The
American grapes do not keep well and do not make good raisins. Taken as
a whole the European varieties are better flavored, possessing a more
delicate and a richer vinous flavor, a more agreeable aroma, and they
lack the acidity and somewhat obnoxious foxy odor and taste of many
American varieties. It is true that there is a disagreeable astringency
in some Vinifera grapes and that many varieties are without character of
flavor, yet, all and all, the species produces by far the better
flavored fruit. On the other hand, American table grapes are more
refreshing; one does not tire of them so quickly as they do not cloy the
appetite as do the richer grapes; and the unfermented juice makes a much
more pleasant drink. The characteristic flavor and aroma of the
varieties of _Vitis labrusca_, our most commonly cultivated native
species, are often described by the terms "foxy"[4] or "musky." If not
too pronounced this foxiness is often very agreeable though, as with the
flavor in many exotic fruits, the liking for it must often be acquired,
and of course may never be acquired; yet the universal condemnation of
this taste by the French and some other Europeans is sheer prejudice.
The bunches and berries of the European grape are larger, more
attractive in appearance, and are borne in greater quantity, vine for
vine or acre for acre. The pulp and skin of the berries of _Vitis
vinifera_ are less objectionable than those of any native species and
the pulp separates more easily from the seeds. The berries do not shell
from the stem nearly so quickly, hence the bunches ship better.
In comparing the vines, those of the Old World grape are more compact in
habit, make a shorter and stouter annual growth, therefore require less
pruning and training. The roots are fleshier, and more fibrous. The
species, taken as a whole, is adapted to far more kinds of soil, and to
much greater differences in environment, and is more easily propagated
from cuttings, than most of the species of American grapes. The
cultivated forms of the wild vines of this country have few points of
superiority over their relative from the eastern hemisphere, but these
few are such as to make them now and probably ever the only grapes
possible to cultivate in America in the commercial vineyards east of the
Rocky Mountains. Indeed, but for the fortunate discovery that the vine
of _Vitis vinifera_ could be grown on the roots of any one of several
species of the American grapes, the vineyards of the Old World grape
would have been almost wholly destroyed within the last half century
because of one of its weaknesses. This destructive agent is the
phylloxera,[5] a tiny plant louse working on the leaf and root of the
grape, which in a few years wholly destroys the European vine but does
comparatively little harm to most of the American vines. Three other
pests are much more harmful in the Old World vineyards than to the vines
of the New World; these are black-rot (_Guignardia bidwellii_ (Ell.) V.
& R.), downy mildew (_Plasmopara viticola_ (B. & C.) Berl. & De Toni),
and powdery mildew (_Uncinula necator_ (Schw.) Burr.).
The susceptibility of the Old World grape to these parasites debars it
from cultivation in eastern America and so effectually that there is but
little hope of any pure-bred variety of it ever being grown in this
region. American viticulture must, therefore, depend upon the native
species for its varieties, though it may be hoped that by combining the
good qualities of the foreign grape with those of one or several of the
species of this country, or by combining and rearranging the best
characters of the native species, we may in time secure varieties equal
in all respects to those of the Old World. The comparative resistance of
the American species to the phylloxera, the mildews, and black-rot has
been due to natural selection in the contest that has been waged for
untold ages between host and parasite. The fact that the native species
have been able to survive and thrive is a guarantee of the permanence of
the resistance thus acquired.
We have said that the Old World grape is debarred from cultivation in
eastern America. It is worth while considering how thorough the attempts
to grow it in this region have been and to give a more exact account of
the failures and their causes, for there are yet those who are
attempting its culture with the hope that we may sometime grow some
offshoot of _Vitis vinifera_ in the region under consideration.
It is probable that the first European grapes planted in what is now
American soil, were grown by the Spanish _padres_ at the old missions in
New Mexico, Arizona and California. Early accounts of some of these
missions speak of grapes which must have been planted before settlements
were made in eastern America. We need take no further account of these
vineyards except to say that in this region the European grape has
always been grown successfully, and that under the skilled hands of the
mission fathers, ever notable vineyardists and wine-makers, these early
plantings must have succeeded.
The English were the first to plant the Old World grape in the territory
in which this species fails because of the attacks of native parasites.
Lord Delaware seems to have been the original promoter of grape-growing
in the New World. In 1616 he wrote to the London Company urging the
culture of the grape as a possible source of revenue for the new
colony.[6] His letter seems to have been convincing, for it is on record
that the Company in 1619 sent a number of French vine-dressers and a
collection of the best varieties of the grapes of France to Virginia.
The Colonial Assembly showed quite as much solicitude in encouraging the
cultivation of the vine as did the Company in London. The year of the
importation of vines and vine-dressers, 1619, the Assembly passed an act
compelling every householder to plant ten cuttings and to protect them
from injury and stated that the landowners were expected to acquire the
art of dressing a vineyard, either through instruction or by
observation. The Company, to increase the interest in vine-growing,
showed marked favors to all who undertook it with zealousness; promises
of servants, the most valuable gifts that could be made to the
colonists, were frequent. Under the impulse thus given vineyards were
planted containing as many as ten thousand vines.[7]
In spite of a rich soil, congenial climate, and skilled vine-dressers,
nothing of importance came from the venture, some of the historians of
the time attributing the failure to the massacre of 1622; others to poor
management of the vines; and still others to disagreements between the
English and their French vine-dressers, who, it was claimed, concealed
their knowledge because they worked as slaves. It is probable that the
latter explanation was fanciful but the former must have been real for
we are told that the farms and outlying settlements were abandoned after
the great massacre. But the colony could hardly have recovered from the
ravages of the Indians before efforts to force the colonists to grow
grapes were again made; for in 1623 the Assembly passed a law that for
every four men in the colony a garden should be laid off a part of which
was to be planted to vines.[8]
In 1639 the Assembly again tried to encourage vine-growing by
legislative enactment, this time with an act giving a premium to
successful grape-growers.[9] Later, about 1660, a premium of ten
thousand pounds of tobacco was offered in Virginia for each "two tunne
of wine" from grapes raised in the colony. Shortly after, some wine was
exported to England but whether made from wild plants or cultivated
ones does not appear. In spite of the encouragement of legislative acts,
grape-growing did not flourish in Virginia.[10] The fact that tobacco
was a paying crop and more easily grown than the grape may have had
something to do with the failure to grow the latter. Or it may have been
that the cheapness of Madeira, "a noble strong drink," as one of the
Colonial historians puts it, had a depressing influence on the industry.
But still more likely, the foreign plants did not thrive.
Encouragement of the home production of wine did not cease in Virginia
for at least one hundred and fifty years; for in 1769 an enactment of
the Assembly was passed to encourage wine-making in favor of one Andrew
Estave, a Frenchman. As a result of the act of this time, land was
purchased, buildings erected, and slaves and workmen with a complete
outfit for wine-making were furnished Estave. The act provided that if
he made within six years ten hogsheads of merchantable wine--land,
houses, slaves, the whole plant was to be given to him. It is stated
that this unusual subsidy is made "as a reward for so useful an
improvement." Estave succeeded in making the wine but it was poor stuff
and he had difficulty in getting the authorities to turn over the
property which was to be his reward. This was finally done by an act of
the Assembly, however, the failure to make good wine being attributed by
all parties to the "unfitness of the land."
An attempt was made to cultivate the European grape in Virginia early in
the eighteenth century on an extensive scale. Soon after taking office
as governor in 1710, Alexander Spotswood brought over a colony of
Germans from the Rhine and settled them in Spottsylvania County on the
Rapidan river. The site of their village on this river is now marked by
a ford, Germania Ford, a name which is a record of the settlement. That
they grew grapes and made wine is certain, for the Governor's "red and
white Rapidan, made by his Spottsylvania Germans" is several times
mentioned in the published journals and letters of the time. But the
venture did not make a deep nor lasting impress on the agriculture of
the colony.[11]
Several early attempts were made in the Carolinas and Georgia to grow
the Vinifera grape. It was thought, in particular, that the French
Huguenots who settled in these states in large numbers toward the close
of the seventeenth century would succeed in grape-growing but even these
skilled vine-growers failed. Their failures are recorded by Alexander
Hewitt in 1779 as follows: "European grapes have been transplanted, and
several attempts made to raise wine; but so overshaded are the vines
planted in the woods, and so foggy is the season of the year when they
ripen, that they seldom come to maturity, but as excellent grapes have
been raised in gardens where they are exposed to the sun, we are apt to
believe that proper methods have not been taken for encouraging that
branch of agriculture, considering its great importance in a national
view." In Georgia, Abraham De Lyon, encouraged by the authorities of the
colony, imported vines from Portugal and planted them at Savannah early
in the eighteenth century but his attempt, though carried out on a small
scale in a garden, soon failed.
In Maryland, if the records are correct, a greater degree of success was
attained than in the states to the south. Lord Charles Baltimore, son of
the grantee of the territory, in 1662 planted three hundred acres of
land in St. Mary's to vines. It is certain that he made and sold wine in
considerable quantities and the old chroniclers report that it was as
good as the best Burgundy. Efforts to grow the European grape in
Maryland continued until as late as 1828 when the _Maryland Society for
Promoting the Culture of the Vine_ was incorporated by the State
Legislature.[12] The object of the Society was to "carry on experiments
in the cultivation of both the European and native grapes and to collect
and disseminate all possible information upon this interesting
subject." The organization was in existence for several years and
through its exertions practically all of the native sorts were tried in
or about Baltimore as well as many seedlings. Besides the achievements
of the Society as a body, their Secretary reports in 1831 that, through
the individual efforts of its members, there were then under cultivation
near the city of Baltimore several vineyards of from three to ten acres
each and a great number of smaller ones. This was several years after
the introduction of the Catawba and Isabella for which grape-growers in
other parts of the United States had largely given up the Vinifera
sorts. Seemingly in every part of the Union the grape of the Old World
was tried, not once only, but time and again before its culture could be
given up.
The Swedes made some attempts at an early day to grow grapes on the
Delaware. Queen Christina instructed John Printz, governor of New
Sweden, to encourage the "culture of the vine" and to give the industry
his personal attention. Later when New Sweden had become a part of
Pennsylvania, William Penn encouraged vine-growing by importing cuttings
of French and Spanish vines; and several experimental vineyards were set
out in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, but all efforts to establish
bearing plantations came to naught. Penn's interest in grape-growing
seems to have been greatly stimulated by wine made by a friend of his
from native grapes which grew about Germantown.
There are no detailed accounts of grape-growing by the Dutch of New York
but the following taken from the writings of Jasper Dankers and Peter
Sluyter, two Hollanders who visited New York in 1679, soon after the
English took possession of New Netherland, indicates that there had been
attempts to cultivate grapes.[13] "I went along the shore to Coney
Island, which is separated from Long Island only by a creek, and around
the point, and came inside not far from a village called _Gravesant_,
and again home. We discovered on the roads several kinds of grapes still
on the vines, called _speck_ (pork) grapes, which are not always good,
and these were not; although they were sweet in the mouth at first, they
made it disagreeable and stinking. The small blue grapes are better, and
their vines grow in good form. Although they have several times
attempted to plant vineyards, and have not immediately succeeded, they,
nevertheless, have not abandoned the hope of doing so by and by, for
there is always some encouragement, although they have not, as yet,
discovered the cause of the failure." The "_speck_" grape was without
question _Vitis labrusca_ and the small blue grape was probably _Vitis
riparia_.
Thirty years before the visit of Dankers and Sluyter the people of New
Netherland addressed a remonstrance to the home government regarding
certain abuses in the colony. This document[14] is headed with a chapter
on the productions of New Netherland in which the wild grapes are
mentioned and their cultivation is suggested. "Almost the whole country,
as well the forest as the maize lands and flats, is full of vines, but
principally--as if they had been planted there--around and along the
banks of the brooks, streams and rivers which course and flow in
abundance very conveniently and agreeably all through the land. The
grapes are of many varieties; some white, some blue, some very fleshy
and fit only to make raisins of; some again are juicy, some very large,
others on the contrary small; their juice is pleasant and some of it
white, like French or Rhenish Wine; that of others, again, a very deep
red, like Tent; some even paler; the vines run far up the trees and are
shaded by their leaves, so that the grapes are slow in ripening and a
little sour, but were cultivation and knowledge applied here, doubtless
as fine Wines would then be made as in any other wine growing
countries."
Nicolls, the first English governor of New York, greatly desired to grow
the vine for wine-making. In 1664 he granted Paul Richards a monopoly of
the industry for the colony stipulating that he could make and sell
wines free of impost and gave him the right to tax any person planting
vines in the colony five shillings per acre.[15] Richards lived in the
city of New York but his vineyard, as indicated in the grant, was
located on Long Island. It may be assumed that this was the first
attempt to grow grapes commercially in the State of New York. It would
seem that the governor by granting a monopoly of the grape and wine
industry took the surest means of killing the infant industry. The Earl
of Bellomont, a later governor of the Colony, wrote to London with
assurances of a great future of viticulture in the Colony.[16] For over
a century after, there were spasmodic efforts to grow the Old World
grape in and about New York City, and at the beginning of the
Revolutionary War there were a few small vineyards and some wine-making
on Manhattan Island.
There were many attempts to grow foreign grapes in New England. John
Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, had planted a vineyard
in one of the islands, known as "Governor's Garden," in Boston Harbor
before 1630. Vine-planters were sent to this colony in 1629.[17] There
were plantations at the mouth of the Piscataqua in Maine as early or
before Winthrop's plantings were made. In granting a charter to Rhode
Island in 1663, Charles II sought to encourage viticulture in that State
by offering liberal inducements to colonists who would grow grapes and
make wine.[18] But if grapes were grown, or wine made from the foreign
grape, no great degree of success was attained. Wine was made in plenty
from the wild grapes in all of the New England colonies so that it was
not because of Puritanical prejudices against wine that the grapes were
not grown. The glowing terms in which travelers returning to England
spoke of the native grapes and of the wine from them undoubtedly
stimulated those founding the colonies to make every effort to introduce
the cultivated grape even though the cold, bleak climate and thin soils
of this northern region were inhospitable to a plant which thrives best
in the sunny southern portions of Europe.
In only one of the states east of the Rockies is grape-growing recorded
to have gained even a foothold before the introduction of varieties of
native grapes. In this instance there is much doubt as to whether the
varieties grown were pure-bred _Vitis vinifera_. Louisiana, while owned
by France, grew grapes and made wine in such quantities, and the wine
was of such high quality, so several of the old chroniclers say, that
the French government forbade grape-growing in the colony. Since the
wine-making was in the hands of the Jesuits who had learned the art in
Europe, and since there were no cultivated varieties of native grapes at
that time of which there is record, the presumption among the early
writers was that these vineyards were of European grapes. Louisiana,
however, was a vast and undefined region and it is not known where these
oft-mentioned vineyards were located. It is probable in the light of
what we now know that these Louisiana Jesuits made wine from native
grapes either wild or cultivated.
The time covered so far is the two hundred years in which America was
being colonized. We have seen that all of our European forefathers
brought with them a love of the vine, or more correctly, a love of wine,
and that throughout the period many experiments were made in all parts
of the eastern United States to grow varieties of _Vitis vinifera_. The
experiments were on a large scale and in the hands of expert
vine-growers, as well trained as their fellow colonists in South Africa,
New Zealand, Australia and South America, countries where the colonists
grew the Old World grapes as easily and as well as they are grown in the
most favored parts of Europe. It is certain that the failures recorded
for these two hundred years were not due to lack of effort on the part
of the settlers. We now pass to more recent efforts, even more
thoroughly carried out, to grow the grape of the Old World in this part
of the New World. The discussion of these later attempts cannot be full.
The reader can readily turn to the horticultural literature of the
century just closed and find much fuller records of them than space
permits in this work.
One of the first and most notable of the vineyards in the eighteenth
century was that of Colonel Robert Bolling of Buckingham County,
Virginia. An account of his undertaking written by one of the Bolling
family some years later reads as follows: "It is now but little known
that this gentleman had early turned his attention to the cultivation of
the vine, and had actually succeeded in procuring and planting a small
vineyard of four acres, of European grapes, at Chellow, the seat of his
residence: that he had so far accomplished his object as to have the
satisfaction of seeing his vines in a most flourishing condition, and
arrived at an age when they were just beginning to bear; promising all
the success that the most sanguine imagination could desire, when,
unfortunately for his family, and perhaps for his country, he departed
this life while in the Convention in Richmond, in July, 1775. Thus all
his fond anticipations of being enabled, in a short time, to afford to
his countrymen a practical demonstration of the facility and certainty
with which grapes might be raised, and wine made, in Virginia, were
suddenly frustrated; all his hopes and prospects blasted; and owing to
the general want of information, in the management of vines, among us at
that time; and the confusion produced by the war of the revolution,
which immediately followed, this promising and flourishing little
vineyard was totally neglected and finally perished."[19]
At the time of Bolling's death he was preparing to send to press a book
on grape-growing entitled _A Sketch of Vine Culture_. The book was never
printed but the manuscript was copied several times and parts of it were
printed contemporaneously in the _Virginia Gazette_, and subsequently in
the _Bolling Memoirs_ and in the _American Farmer_.[20] Bolling's book
was largely a compilation from European sources but it contained the
experiences and observations of the author in cultivating European
grapes in America and though not printed, was sufficiently distributed
through manuscript copies and through the papers and books mentioned
above, to give its author the honor of being the first American writer
on grapes.
In an essay on the cultivation of the vine published in the first volume
of the _Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_[21] printed
in Philadelphia in 1771, a Mr. Edward Antill of Shrewsbury, New Jersey,
gives explicit directions for grape-growing and wine-making.[22] Antill
describes only foreign varieties and leads the reader to infer, though
he does not say so, that he has grown many varieties of these grapes
successfully. But neither his essay, nor his efforts at grape-growing,
seemed to have stimulated a grape industry worthy of note. This essay of
Antill's is the second American treatise on the cultivation of the grape
and was for many years the chief authority on grape-growing in America.
It is greatly to be regretted that a treatise which was to be quoted for
fifty years could not have been more meritorious. The eighty quarto
pages written by Antill give little real or trustworthy information. It
is a rambling discussion of European grapes, wine-making, the temperance
question, patriotism, "wellfare of country," and "good of mankind". He
quotes Columella, gives methods of curing grapes for raisins, and winds
up with a discussion of figs. Yet a hundred years ago it was the chief
work on grape-growing.
A Frenchman, Peter Legaux, founded a company in 1793 for the cultivation
of grapes at Spring Mill near Philadelphia. In 1800 he published an
account of his venture.[23] A vineyard of European grapes was set out
and the prospects seemed favorable for the success of the undertaking.
But the grapes began to fail, dissensions arose among the stock-holders,
the vineyards were neglected and the company failed. Legaux speaks of
his experience in grape-growing as follows:[24] "But if the native
grapes of America are not the most eligible for vineyards, others are
now within the reach of its inhabitants. Some years since I procured
from France three hundred plants from the three kinds of grapes in the
highest estimation, of which are made Burgundy, Champagne and Bordeaux
wines. These three hundred plants have in ten years produced 100,000
plants; which, were the culture encouraged, would in ten years more,
produce upwards of thirty millions of plants; or enough to stock more
than 8000 acres, at 3600 plants to the acre, set about three feet and a
half apart. I have also about 3000 plants raised from a single plant
procured a few years since from the Cape of Good Hope, of the kind which
produces the excellent Constantia wines. The gentlemen who at different
times have done me the honour to taste these wines can bear testimony to
their good quality. Although made in the hottest season, (about the
middle of August) yet they were perfectly preserved without the addition
of a drop of brandy or any other spirit. And in this will consist one
excellency of the wines here recommended to the notice of my fellow
citizens; that being made wholly of the juice of grapes, they will be
light, wholesome, and excite an agreeable cheerfulness, without
inflaming the blood, or producing the other ill effects of the strong
brandied wines, imported from the southern parts of Europe. Since 1793,
I have confined my attention chiefly to the multiplication of my vines,
to supply the demand for plants, and to furnish an extended vineyard
under my own direction, whenever my fellow citizens possessing pecuniary
means, should be inclined to encourage and support the attempt."
Out of this venture, however, came the Alexander grape, an offspring of
a native species, and not, as Legaux held, a foreign variety, which, as
we shall see later, was the first variety to be grown on a commercial
scale in eastern America. Johnson,[25] writing of Legaux's work with the
grape, says that in 1801 cuttings were sent from the Spring Mill
vineyards in quantities of fifteen hundred to Kentucky and Pennsylvania
and smaller quantities to Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland,
Virginia and Ohio, and indicates that these cuttings in their turn were
multiplied so that many diverse experiments with foreign grapes arose
from Legaux's efforts.
Chief of the experiments which Legaux's partial success in vine-growing
stimulated was carried on in Kentucky by _The Kentucky Vineyard Society_
of which John James Dufour, a Swiss, was leader.[26] It was to this
Company that Legaux had sent the fifteen hundred cuttings mentioned
above as going to Kentucky. Before founding his grape colony, Dufour had
made a tour of inspection of all the vineyards that he could hear of in
what then constituted the United States. His account of what he saw,
given in his book _The Vine Dresser's Guide_, is the most accurate
statement we have of grape-growing in America at the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
Dufour's account, pages 18-24, runs as follows: "I went to see all the
vines growing that I could hear of, even as far as Kaskaskia, on the
borders of the Mississippi; because I was told, by an inhabitant of that
town, whom I met with at Philadelphia, that the Jesuits had there a very
successful vineyard, when that country belonged to the French, and were
afterwards ordered by the French government to destroy it, for fear the
culture of the grapes should spread in America and hurt the wine trade
of France. As I had seen but discouraging plantations of vines on that
side of the Alleghany, and as the object of my journey to America, was
purposely to learn what could be done in that line of business; I was
desirous to see if the west would afford more encouragement. I resolved
therefore on a visit to see if any remains of the Jesuits' vines were
still in being, and what sort of grapes they were; supposing very
naturally, that if they had succeeded as well as tradition reported,
some of them might possibly be found in some of the gardens there. But I
found only the spot where that vineyard had been planted, in a well
selected place, on the side of a hill to the north east of the town,
under a cliff. No good grapes, however were found either there, or in
any of the gardens of the country. * * * In my journeying down the Ohio,
I found at Marietta a Frenchman, who was making several barrels of wine
every year, out of grapes that were growing wild, and abundantly, on the
heads of the Islands of the Ohio River, known by the name of Sand
grapes, because they grow best on the gravels; a few plants of which are
now growing in one of our vineyards, given by the Harmonites under the
name of red juice. * * * The various attempts at vineyards that I heard
of, which I went to see, at Monticello, President Jefferson's place;
which, in 1799, I perceived had been abandoned, or left without any care
for three or four years before, which proved evidently, that it had not
been profitable: At Spring Mill, on the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia,
planted by Mr. LEGAUX, a French gentleman, and afterwards supported by a
wealthy Society formed by subscription, at that City, for the express
purpose of trying to extend the culture of the grape. I saw that
vineyard in 1796, 1799 and 1806. On the estate of Mr. CAROLL, of
Carollton, below Baltimore, in Maryland; whither I went on purpose from
Philadelphia in 1796, there was a small vineyard kept by a French
vinedresser, and where they had tried a few sorts of the indigenous
grapes. At the Southern Liberties of Philadelphia, I saw in 1806, a
plantation of a large assortment of the best species of French grapes;
which a French vinedresser had brought over the Atlantic. They were at
their 2d or 3d years: they had not been attacked by the sickness: their
nurse was yet full of hope.--In 1796, I saw also, near the Susquehannah
river, not far from Middletown, a vineyard that had been planted by a
German; but who having died sometime before, the vineyard had been
wholly neglected. I was told, it had produced some wine; but it had
suffered so much delapidation, that I could not recognize the species of
grapes."
With full knowledge of the failures of the past in growing grapes, and
after his disheartening visits to a score or more of worthless vineyards
planted with the grapes of his native country, Dufour embarked in the
_Kentucky Vineyard Society_ enterprise and gave the Old World grapes a
thorough trial on an extensive scale, with an abundance of capital, and,
to care for the vines, as skilled labor as could be obtained in the
vineyards of Europe. As was the case with all past undertakings of the
kind so this one proved a failure. In the words of Dufour "a sickness
took hold of all our vines except a few stocks of Cape and Madeira
grapes." The promoters became disheartened and the vineyard after being
cultivated for several years was abandoned.
Members of the colony, thinking that a more favorable location might be
found elsewhere in the valley of the Ohio, settled at Vevay, Indiana, in
1802. Dufour and several of his relatives were granted the privilege of
purchasing lands with extended credit by an act of Congress May 1st,
1802. They purchased 2500 acres at the location of the new colony in
Indiana and began anew the culture of the vine. For a time there was an
element of prosperity in the enterprise but the vines became diseased
and died, only one sort, the Cape or Alexander, gave returns for the
care bestowed and by 1835 the Vevay vineyards ceased to exist. Could
Dufour have foreseen the value of the native grapes for cultivation and
devoted the capital and energy spent on European sorts to the best wild
plants from the woods, grape culture in America would have been put
forward half a century.
Other experiments with Old World grapes were tried in 1803 by the
Harmonists, a religious-socialistic community founded in Germany, but
which finally settled in America. After temporary sojourns in other
settlements, the Harmonists founded a permanent colony in Pennsylvania
near Pittsburg. Here they planted ten acres of European grapes and grew
them with but temporary success, if any, for Dufour in 1826 visited the
colony and says: "None of the imported grapes do well there except the
Black Juice, of which I saw but one plant; it is too small a bearer to
be worth nursing."[27] Again there was disaster to an extensive
experiment in the hands of skilled men. Besides having tried grape
culture in Pennsylvania, the Harmonists made plantations at New Harmony,
Indiana, where they settled for a time; but exact accounts of this
experiment are wanting.
One other of the many organized attempts to grow the foreign grapes
needs mention. When the Napoleonic wars were over a number of
Bonaparte's exiled officers came to America. They were impoverished, and
in order to help them, as well as to insure their becoming permanent
settlers in the United States, the exiles were organized by American
sympathizers into a society for the cultivation of the vine and the
olive. The society was organized in the early fall of 1816 in
Philadelphia and the remainder of the year was spent in prospecting for
a suitable location for the venture. The colony finally decided to
settle on the Tombigbee river in Alabama and petitioned Congress for a
grant of land in that region. In the end the refugees obtained a grant
from Congress of four contiguous townships, each six miles square[28]
for the culture of the vine and the olive.
In 1817, an installment of one hundred and fifty French settlers left
Philadelphia taking with them an assortment of grape and olive plants.
December 12, 1821, Charles Villars, one of the company, reported to the
American government[29] that there were then in the colony eighty-one
actual planters, 327 persons all told, with 1100 acres in full
cultivation, including 10,000 vines and that the company had spent about
$160,000 in the venture. Villars tells in full of the ups and downs of
the Society. It was apparent from the start that the olive could not be
grown. The history of the vineyards on the Tombigbee, as he tells it, is
but a record of misfortune. All efforts to cultivate the foreign vines
resulted only in failure. The few vines that the vintners made grow
yielded a scant crop of miserable quality which could not be made into
wine because of ripening in the heat of summer. The land was not adapted
to growing grapes. The Society, meeting failure at every turn, finally
disbanded and the colonists were scattered. For a half century after,
there were records in the southern agricultural literature of the
attempts of stragglers or descendants of this colony to grow European
grapes in the South. Yet these grapes are not now cultivated in this
region, which seemingly has the climate and the soil of France.
The history of these French settlers on the Tombigbee is a most pathetic
one.[30] Many of the leaders had been officers of high rank in
Napoleon's armies unaccustomed to field work and the hardships of a new
country. Here, in a rough and hardly explored country, part of which was
overflowed half of the year, visited by all the sicknesses inherent to
such a location, they passed several years in their attempts to grow
European grapes. Failure was predestined because of natural obstacles
which by this time were apparent, and was foreshadowed by so many
previous unsuccessful attempts that it would seem that this culminating
tragedy in growing European grapes could have been prevented. The
certain failure of the attempt makes all the more pathetic the story of
the Vine and Olive Colony on the Tombigbee.[31]
In closing the record of the Old World grape in America a few of the
later individual attempts to grow this grape must be recounted.
Three generations of Princes experimented with European grapes at the
famous Linnæan Botanic Garden, Flushing, Long Island. Wm. R. Prince[32]
author of _A Treatise on the Vine_, devoted his life to promoting the
culture of the grape in America. He tried all of the European sorts
obtainable, "reared" as he tells us, "from plants imported _direct_ from
the most celebrated collections in France, Germany, Italy, the Crimea,
Madeira, etc.; and above two hundred varieties are the identical kinds
which were cultivated at the Royal Garden of the Luxembourg at Paris, an
establishment formed by royal patronage for the purpose of concentrating
all the most valuable fruits of France, and testing their respective
merits."[33] After nearly a half century of experimentation he gave up
the culture of foreign grapes and largely devoted the last years of his
life to growing and disseminating native varieties, exercising,
probably, a greater influence on the culture of American grapes than any
other of the many men who have helped improve the grapes of this
country.
Nicholas Longworth,[34] of Cincinnati, Ohio, experimented with the
European grapes for thirty years. His experience is best told in his own
words written in 1846: "I have tried the foreign grapes extensively for
wine at great expense for many years, and have abandoned them as unfit
for our climate. In the acclimation of plants I do not believe. The
white, Sweetwater grape is not more hardy with me than it was thirty
years since, and does not bear as well. I have tried them in all soils
and with all exposures.
"I obtained 5,000 plants from Madeira, 10,000 from France; and one-half
of them, consisting of twenty varieties of the most celebrated wine
grapes from the mountains of Jura, in the extreme northern[35] part of
France, where the vine region ends; I also obtained them from the
vicinity of Paris, Bordeaux, and from Germany. I went to the expense of
trenching one hundred feet square on a side hill, placing a layer of
stone and gravel at the bottom, with a drain to carry off the water, and
to put in a compost of rich soil and sand three feet deep, and planted
on it a great variety of foreign wine grapes. All failed; and not a
single plant is left in my vineyards. I would advise the cultivation of
native grapes alone, and the raising of new varieties from their
seed."[36]
The French Revolution drove a wealthy and educated Frenchman, M.
Parmentier, to New York at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He
planted about his place in Brooklyn a large garden in which there were
many grapes. This garden afterward became a commercial nursery from
which was distributed a considerable number of European grapes. Mr.
Robert Underhill at Croton Point on the Hudson was induced to plant a
vineyard of these but they soon went the way of all their kind, leaving
Mr. Underhill only a consuming desire to plant grapes. This desire bore
fruit, as we shall see. When the reign of terror had ceased, Parmentier
returned to France from whence he sent many grapes to friends in
America. He left a lasting impress on the horticulture and viticulture
of America, through his experimental efforts with plants and his
contribution to American horticultural literature. The Underhills (the
father had been joined by his sons R. T. and W. A. Underhill) planted a
vineyard of Catawbas and Isabellas in 1827. These vineyards grew until
they covered seventy-five acres, the product of which was marketed in
the metropolis and nearby cities. The grapes from this vineyard often
sold for twenty-five cents a pound and supplied the whole market of the
region. The grape industry of the Hudson River Valley began with
Parmentier and the Underhills.
Another Frenchman, Alphonse Loubat, planted a vineyard of forty acres at
Utrecht, Long Island, containing about 150,000 plants of foreign
varieties. Here, we are told, "he strove against mildew and sun-scald
for several years, but had to yield at last, as the elements were too
much for human exertions to overcome."[37] Loubat attempted to protect
his grapes from mildew by covering them with paper bags and was probably
the originator of the practice of bagging grapes.
Not infrequently one may still find some varieties of the Old World
grape grown out of doors with a fair degree of success in favored
locations but always by the amateur and never in a commercial vineyard.
These few pages rehearsing repeated failures without a single success,
serve to show the uselessness of attempting to grow foreign grapes in
eastern America. Their culture has been tried by thousands on a small
scale and by many individuals with experience, knowledge and capital on
a large scale. With all, the results have been the same; a year or two
of promise, then disease, dead vines and an abandoned vineyard.
The causes for these failures have been indicated. As Dufour says, "a
sickness takes hold of the vines." Phylloxera, mildew, rot--native
parasites to which native grapes are comparatively immune--"take hold"
of the foreign sorts and they die.
It is probable, too, that our climate, at the North at least, is not
well suited to the production of the Old World grape. As a species, the
Vinifera grapes thrive best in climates equable in both temperature and
humidity. The climate of eastern America is not equable; it alternates
between hot and cold, wet and dry. The range in both temperature and
humidity is far greater than in the grape-growing regions of Europe,
California, South Africa or Australia. The fleshy roots of _Vitis
vinifera_ are more tender to cold than are those of the species of
northern United States and this would prevent its culture becoming very
general in many regions where native grapes can be grown.
It is only in the regions west of the Rocky Mountains, and more
particularly in California, that the varieties of Vinifera are
successfully grown in America. The great viticultural interests of the
far West are founded upon the success of this one species. The native
grapes can be grown but they cannot compete in California with _Vitis
vinifera_ for any purpose. Nevertheless American species are
indispensable in this western region for stocks upon which to graft the
Vinifera varieties, and it is probable that the time is not far distant
when all California vines will be upon American roots. Within the
boundaries of latitude in which Vinifera varieties are grown west of the
Rocky Mountains the grape shows wonderful adaptability; it is found at
all elevations permitting fruit culture; it grows on practically all
soils; it thrives under irrigation or under dry farming; it is given
various kinds of treatment, including total neglect, and still thrives;
the number of varieties grown for wine, raisin and table grapes runs
into hundreds. The truly wonderful success met with in the cultivation
of this species west of the great continental divide makes all the more
remarkable the fact that in no place east of the divide will varieties
of it thrive.
We now pass to a consideration of the American grapes, their characters,
the early notices of them, their rise, their success, and their
future--a more pleasing task than to record disaster after disaster in
growing the grape of the Old World.