CHAPTER II

AMERICAN GRAPES

The grape is preeminently a North American plant. The genus Vitis is a

large one, from thirty to fifty species being distinguished for the

world; more than half of these are found on this continent. But few

other plants in America, or in the world, inhabit such varied and such

extended areas. In North America wild grapes abound on the warm, dry

soils of New Brunswick and New England, about the Great Lakes in Canada

and in the United States, and on the fertile river banks and in the

valleys, rich woodlands and thickets of the eastern and southern States.

They thrive in the dry woods, sandy sea-plains, and reef-keys of the

Carolinas, Georgia and Florida where the vines of the Scuppernong often

run more than a hundred feet over trees and shrubs, rioting in natural

luxuriance. They flourish in the mountains and limestone hills of the

Virginias, Tennessee and Kentucky. They are not so common in the West,

yet found in almost all parts of Missouri and Arkansas, and from North

Dakota through Kansas to southern Texas. Some wild grape is found in

each of the Rocky Mountain States on plain or mountain, or in river

chasm or dry canon. Several species are found in New Mexico, Arizona and

California, where if they did not furnish the Spanish _padres_ of Santa

Fe and San Diego with fruit for wine, they suggested to them the

planting of the first successful vineyards in the United States.

How did the grape spread from the Carolinas to California and from

subtropical Mexico to the barren plains of Central Canada? Why divide

into its manifold forms in the distribution? These questions are of

practical import to the grape-grower and breeder who seeks to improve

this fruit. The knowledge of the distribution and evolution of plants

obtained in the last half century is so complete that these questions

present few difficulties to the naturalist of today. In answering them

no one would now hold that the numerous species and their sub-divisions

were created separately for the regions in which they grow. All would

take the ground that the different wild forms come from one ancestral

species. We can waive the question as to what the original species was

and as to where it first grew.

It is certain that grapes have not been distributed over North America

by the hand of man. Probably they have been growing in the regions where

they are now found since before the migration of the first savages. The

agents of distribution have been natural ones, such as animals, birds,

and lake and river currents. These have widened the area of a species to

limits imposed by the hostile action of other plants and of animals and

by geographical and physical conditions. As a species has encroached

upon a new region, climate, soil, all of the conditions of environment,

and the contest with other living things, have gradually modified its

characters until in time it became so changed that it constituted a new

species.

This descent from an original species with plants changed by environment

has given us, in America, types of the wild grape as widely diverse as

the regions they inhabit. The species found in the forests have

developed long slender trunks and branches in their struggle to attain

sunlight and air. At least two species are dwarf and shrubby, or

infrequently climbing, two to six feet high, growing in dry sands, on

rocky hills and mountains where roots must cling to rocks and penetrate

into interstices. Still another form runs on the ground and over low

bushes and is nearly evergreen, but in the herbarium can hardly be

distinguished from a grape whose habit of growth is strikingly

different. Some are long-lived, growing and bearing fruit for two or

more centuries, while others reach no greater age than the ordinary

shrub. Some have enormous stems, a foot or more in diameter, gnarled and

picturesque and supporting a great canopy of branch and foliage,[38]

while others are slender in stem and graceful, almost delicate, in

character of vine. Not less remarkable than the differences in structure

is the adaptability of the genus and some of the species to varied

climatic conditions. Several of the wild grapes develop full size and

display natural luxuriance and fruit-bearing qualities only in the

Middle States, but may be found on dry, gravelly, wind-swept hills far

to the north or in some hot and humid atmosphere of the South, as if to

show indifference to wet or dry, heat or cold.

On the other hand there are many strong points of resemblance between

the score or more of species. The organs and characters that do not bear

the strain of changed environment, nor suffer in the perpetual warfare

of nature, are much the same in all of the species of Vitis. Thus the

structure of flowers, fruits and seeds is practically identical; all

have naked-tipped tendrils; leaves and leaf-buds are very similar; and

the various species usually hybridize freely. They are alike in the

unlikeness of individual plants in any of the species; that is, all of

the individuals of the genus are most variable and seeds taken from the

same vine may produce plants quite unlike one another and quite unlike

the parent.

These few facts regarding the evolution and distribution of American

grapes lead to two important conclusions:

First, the species are so distributed throughout the United States, and

individuals of the species grow in such abundance and luxuriance, as to

suggest that we shall be able to improve and domesticate some one or

more of them for all of the agricultural regions of the country. For it

is proved that nearly all of the wild grapes have horticultural

possibilities; and experience with many plants teaches that the

boundaries of areas inhabited by the wild species of a given region

coincide with those suited to the production of the domesticated plant

in that region. It is not possible to tell where the grape-growing

regions of the future are to be located; for species and individuals of

this fruit are so common that no one can say where the grape is most at

home in America.

Second, grapes are so variable and plastic in nature that, were it not

known from experience, it could be assumed that they would yield readily

to improvement. Besides being variable they hybridize freely and thus

the plant-breeder can obtain desirable starting points. There are

indications that some of the characters of grapes, at least, follow

Mendel's Law, and when once these have been determined, and the more

important unit characters segregated and defined, it ought to be

possible to combine and rearrange the characters of this fruit with some

system and surely with more certainty than in the past.

This brief introduction leads us to the consideration of American grapes

as cultivated plants. We have seen that it is an absolute impossibility

to grow the Old World grape in eastern America. The fruit-growers in

this great region are forced to plant the native grapes if any. It

required two hundred years to establish this fact and it is less than a

hundred years since grape-growers have generally acknowledged it as a

fact. What was known of American grapes during the two hundred years

wasted in attempting to grow the foreign Vinifera? And what has been

accomplished in a century in ameliorating the native grapes?

The earliest European visitors to the Atlantic seaboard delighted in the

wild grapes which they found everywhere and which reminded them of the

Old World vineyards. Had they never seen such a fruit, the wild grapes

could not long have escaped their attention; for the Indians knew and

used them as they did potatoes, corn, and tobacco. In the narratives of

the early voyages the grape is often in the lists of the resources and

treasures of the new-found continent. Unfortunately it was not

considered of great intrinsic value but only suggested to the explorers

that the grape of the old home might be grown in the new home. Could a

part of the exaggerated esteem given by the early European travelers and

home-seekers to sassafras, ginseng and other such plants, have been

bestowed upon the wild grapes which over-run the country, viticulture

would have taken rank with the tobacco, lumber and the fish industries

of the early settlers.

In the history of Vinland, or more properly Wineland, we find the first

record of American grapes.[39] Biarni Heriulfsson, a Norseman, while

making a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, 986 A. D., was driven by a

storm to the coast of New England but did not touch land. Leif the

Lucky, son of Eric the Red, about 1000 A. D., visited the country

discovered by Biarni. One of Leif's men, Tyrker, a German who "was born

where there is no lack of either grapes or vines," discovered grapes,

whereupon Leif named the country "Wineland." Other Norsemen in at least

two expeditions visited Wineland, supposed to be a part of Rhode Island

or Massachusetts, and for centuries after, the land discovered by Leif

the Lucky was known in Icelandic literature as "Wineland the Good." The

first European to touch the New World christened it after its grapes.

The next record we have of American grapes comes from an Englishman, one

Captain John Hawkins, who visited the Spanish settlements in Florida in

1565.[40] In his account of the colony he speaks of the wild grapes,

comparing them, as did all the early explorers, with those of Europe. He

indicates further that the Spaniards had discovered the value of the

wild grape for domestic purposes and says that they had made twenty

hogsheads of wine in a single season. It is almost certain that this

grape was _Vitis rotundifolia_, best represented by the Scuppernong,

which is commonly found on the Atlantic sea-coast from Maryland to

Florida.

The first English colonists, like the Norsemen, declared the new-found

world to be a natural vineyard. Amadas and Barlowe, sent out by Raleigh

in 1584, described the land[41] "so full of grapes as the very beating

and surge of the sea overflowed them, of which we found such plenty, as

well there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the green

soil, on the hills as on the plains, as well as on every little shrub

as also climbing towards the top of high cedars, that I think in all the

world the like abundance is not to be found."

Ralph Lane, in a subsequent expedition of Raleigh's, in a letter to

Hakluyt, pronounced the grapes of Virginia to be larger than those of

France, Spain or Italy.[42]

The region described by Amadas and Barlowe is that of the two great

sounds, Albemarle and Pamlico, on the coast of North Carolina and more

specifically Roanoke Island. It was to this place that Raleigh sent his

expeditions, with one of which Amadas and Barlowe were connected, and

established the earliest colony of Englishmen in the New World. The

first home of Europeans in America was in Vinland, named for its grapes.

The first home of Englishmen was on Roanoke Island, "so full of grapes

that the very sea overflowed them."

A few years later, Thomas Hariot, in a description of Virginia which

must have done much to decide the English as to the advisability of

establishing colonies in America, gave a detailed account of the

merchantable commodities the new countries afforded. Among these he

mentions grapes which he describes as being of two kinds that the soil

yields naturally and abundantly, of which one was small and sour and of

the bigness of the European grape while the other was of greater size

and more sweet and luscious. Hariot concludes his description with the

statement that "when they are planted and husbanded as they ought, a

principal commodity of wine may be raised."[43]

Of the later accounts given of grapes in Virginia and the Carolinas by

the colonizers and adventurers of the seventeenth century there are so

many that it is impossible to present all and difficult to sort out

those most apt. A few more may be given:

Captain John Smith, soldier, colonizer and Virginian planter, writing in

1606 describes two sorts of wild grapes. He says:[44] "Of vines great

abundance in many parts that climbe the toppes of highest trees in some

places, but these beare but few grapes. Except by the rivers and savage

habitations, where they are not overshadowed from the sunne, they are

covered with fruit, though never pruined nor manured. Of those hedge

grapes we made neere twentie gallons of wine, which was like our French

Brittish wine, but certainely they would prove good were they well

manured. There is another sort of grape neere as great as a Cherry, this

they [Indians] call _Messamins_, they be fatte, and the juyce thicke.

Neither doth the taste so well please when they are made in wine."

It is worthy of remark that the first English colonist in the New World

noticed that the vines in the vicinity of the Indian habitations and

along the edges of creeks, rivers and swamps, where not overshadowed

from the sun, were covered with fruit. The statement of this fact,

coupled with the one following, "but certainely they would prove good

were they well manured," indicates that the possibility of successful

cultivation of the wild grapes was considered at this early time. In

fact, as we have seen, Lord Delaware at once sought to test the virtues

of the native grapes by bringing over a number of French vine-dressers,

who not only planted cuttings imported from Europe but proceeded at once

to transplant the vine of the country.[45] A few years later, according

to Bruce, Sir Thomas Dale "established a vineyard at Henrico not long

after the foundation of that settlement, covering an area of three

acres, in which he planted the vines of the native grape for the purpose

of testing their adaptability to the production of wines that could be

substituted for those of France and Spain."[46]

Francis Maguel, who visited Virginia in 1609, stated that the wine made

in the colony reminded him of the Alicante which he had drunk in

Spain.[47]

The first Secretary of the Colony, William Strachey, was somewhat

fulsome in his praise of the new found fruit. Writing[48] in 1610, he

says that the vines burden every bush, climb to the top of the highest

trees and are always full of clusters of grapes though never pruned or

manured. He declares that the grapes are as good as those to be found

between Paris and Amiens and that the wine made by the settlers from the

wild grapes was equal to French or British wine, "being strong and

headdy." In closing his description he states that by art and industry

skillful vignerons could bring viticulture unto such perfection as will

enable the colony to export wine to the mother country.

An anonymous writer in 1649, who sets out to give a "full and true

relation of the present state of the plantations, their health, peace

and plenty," etc., etc., thought that the colony needed only some one to

set an example to the ordinary settlers to induce them to grow grapes.

This writer says: "Vines in abundance and variety, do grow naturally

over all the land, but by the birds and beasts, most devoured before

they come to perfection and ripenesse; but this testifies and declares,

That the Ground, and the Climate is most proper, and the Commodity of

Wine is not a contemptible Merchandize; but some men of worth and estate

must give in these things example to the inferior inhabitants and

ordinary sort of men, to shew them the gain and Commodity by it, which

they will not believe but by experience before their faces:"[49]

A hundred years later, according to Beverly, the grape was scarcely

cultivated, the masses of the people being content with the fruit of the

wild vines which grew everywhere in the forest. So far as is known there

were in Beverly's time, 1722, no named varieties and there had been no

efforts to improve the wild grapes in any way. There are no indications

from the early writings to show that the Virginian settlers even knew

how to propagate grapes. The reason for this neglect is largely to be

sought for in the last sentence in the subjoined footnote from

Beverly.[50] This neglect was in spite of the fact that from the first

the settlers had noted that when the vines were open to the sun the crop

was improved.

In the northern colonies, as in Virginia, about the first object to

attract the attention of the early settlers was the wild grape. The

grape, possibly more than any other natural product of the soil, is

mentioned in the preliminary surveys of the Atlantic Coast as offering

reasonable ground for the expectation that American soils would furnish

all of the supplies necessary for the sustenance and comfort of

settlers. A few statements from the early explorers and visitors in the

Middle and New England States will serve to show how plentiful wild

grapes were in these regions and the estimation in which they were held.

In Delaware, Beauchamp Plantagenet, describing a "Uvedale under

Websneck," in his account of New Albion, says that it contains "four

sorts of excellent great vines running on mulberry and sassafras trees;

there are four sorts of grapes, the first is the Thoulouse Muscat, sweet

scented, the second the great fox and thick grape, after five months

reaped being boiled and salted, and well fined, it is a strong red

Xeres; the third a light Claret, the fourth a white grape creeps on the

land, maketh a pure gold color white wine; Tenis Pale, the Frenchman, of

these four made eight sorts of excellent wine, and of the Muscat acute

boiled that the second draught will fox[51] a reasonable pate four

months old: and here may be gathered and made two hundred ton in the

vintage month, and replanted will mend."

In New England the seventeenth century notices of the wild grape are

even more numerous than similar records to the south but they are

briefer and the northern observer did not recognize the possibilities of

their domestic use and of bringing them under cultivation. This seeming

neglect of the Puritans was not because the northern wild grapes are

inferior to those of Virginia and the Carolinas, but more likely because

of the social and industrial conditions of the colonists. The richer

planters in the South had time for wine-making, the only purpose for

which grapes were then grown, and for growing the grapes. The New

Englanders had to struggle for the necessities of life.

It is significant, too, that the Southerners were fond of wine, and

imported Madeira in large quantities. In New England, rum seems to have

been preferred to wine, and as its manufacture from molasses is very

simple and the latter was to be had from the West Indies at small cost,

wine-making and grape-growing received small attention.

Yet nearly all of the writers on the resources of the New England

Colonies mentioned grapes. Thus Governor Edward Winslow writing in 1621

of the country in which the Puritans had found a home says: "here are

grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also." We have seen

that Winthrop was so impressed with the possibility of grape-growing in

the new colony that he secured a grant of Governor's Island in Boston

Harbor upon which to plant a vineyard. In Thomas Morton's _New English

Canaan_ is found the best account of the wild grapes of New England as

the Puritan found them. He says:[52] "Vines, of this kinde of trees,

there are that beare grapes of three colours, that is to say: white,

black, and red.

"The Country is so apt for vines, that (but for the fire at the spring

of the yeare) the vines would so over spreade the land, that one should

not be able to passe for them, the fruit is as bigg of some as a musket

bullet, and is excellent in taste."

John Josselyn in _New England's Rarities_, speaks of a grape having "a

taste of gunpowder," a short but vivid description of _Vitis

labrusca_.[53] William Wood in _New England's Prospect_ gives still

another account of the grapes of New England.[54]

The references given are sufficient to show that the value of the native

grapes as a source of food and for wine was recognized by the first

settlers in practically all of the colonies and that their possibilities

as cultivated plants were considered by some of the colonizers. Yet for

two hundred years there were no zealous efforts made to cultivate

American grapes. Indeed, there are far fewer references to the wild

grapes of the country in the eighteenth century than in the seventeenth.

The reasons for this neglect of a plant which could so easily have been

improved by cultivation, and this must have been apparent, are several.

During all of this period the European grape was being tried and all

hopes for viticulture were centered about it. Again, fruit of any kind

was not a common article of diet with Americans until even so recently

as a generation ago, and native grapes are dessert fruits, not wine

fruits, and wine was the purpose for which all grapes were grown until

the Catawba, the Concord and the Delaware whetted the appetites of fruit

eaters for a dessert grape.

In the history of the amelioration of the American grapes we can skip

the period from the early settlement of the country, a period

represented by the above quotations, to the first years of the United

States as a lapse of time in which there were no steps forward and in

which even information concerning grapes was scarcely increased. The

evolution of American grapes began with the opening of the nineteenth

century, about the only accounts of grapes during the eighteenth century

worthy of note being those of John Lawson, 1714; Robert Beverly, 1722;

Col. Robert Bolling, 1765; Edward Antill, 1769; and Peter Legaux, 1800.

All of these writers excepting Lawson were concerned with European

grapes, and their relations to grape-growing were therefore discussed in

the chapter on the Old World grape. It remains, however, to call

attention to such statements as were made by them of American grapes.

John Lawson, a Scotch engineer, spent eight years, beginning in 1700,

exploring and surveying North Carolina. A part of this time he was

Surveyor General for the State and through natural desire and vocation

he became familiar with the flora of North Carolina. In his history of

that State, written in 1714, he gives an account of its natural

resources in which the grapes of the region are several times described.

He distinguishes six kinds, three of which he mentions as having been

removed to the gardens. His fullest account runs as follows:[55]

"Among the natural fruits, the vine takes first place, of which I find

six sorts, very well known. The first is the black bunch grapes which

yield a crimson juice. These grow common and bear plentifully, they are

of a good relish, though not large, yet well knit in the clusters. They

have a thickish skin and large stone, which makes them not yield much

juice. There is another sort of black grapes like the former in all

respects, save that their juice is of a light flesh color, inclining to

a white. I once saw a spontaneous white bunch grape in Carolina; but the

cattle browzing on the sprouts thereof in the spring, it died. Of those

which we call fox grapes, we have four sorts; two whereof are called

summer grapes, because ripe in July; the other two winter fruits,

because not ripe till September or October. The summer fox grapes grow

not in clusters or great bunches, but are about five or six in a bunch,

about the bigness of a damson or larger. The black sort are frequent,

the white not so commonly found. They always grow in swamps and low,

moist lands, running sometimes very high and being shady, and therefore

proper for arbours. They afford the largest leaf I ever saw to my

remembrance, the back of which is of a white horse flesh color. This

fruit always ripens in the shade. I have transplanted them into my

orchard and find they thrive well, if manured. A neighbor of mine has

done the same; mine were by slips, his from the roots, which thrive to

admiration, and bear fruit, though not so juicy as the European grape,

but of a glutinous nature. However it is pleasant enough to eat.

"The other winter fox grapes are much of the same bigness. These refuse

no ground, swampy or dry, but grow plentifully on the sand hills along

the sea coast and elsewhere, and are great bearers. I have seen near

twelve bushels upon one vine of the black sort. Some of these, when

thoroughly ripe, have a very pretty vinous taste and eat very well, yet

are glutinous. The white sort are clear and transparent, and indifferent

small stones. Being removed by the slip or root, they thrive well in our

gardens, and make pleasant shades."

In another part of his history, Lawson says that in 1708 the French

Huguenots on Trent River, North Carolina, were cultivating European

grapes for wine-making.[56] Again he devotes several pages to the

subject of grape-growing in North Carolina.[57] He held that this "noble

vegetable" could be brought to the same perfection as in similar

latitudes in Europe. He states that Nathaniel Johnson had rejected all

exotic vines and was cultivating native sorts from which he was making

excellent wine. Lawson admonishes his readers that in a new country the

settlers are under the necessity of making use of the natural products

of the soil of which, in Carolina, the wild grape is most worthy of

notice. He calls attention to the fact that conditions are so different

in America that European methods of cultivation and care cannot be

followed. Lastly he states that he had planted seeds from the white

grapes of Madeira from which he hoped to raise a vineyard. Lawson is

deserving of esteem as an energetic pioneer, an accurate historian, as

one of the first American naturalists, and as an early vineyardist and

horticulturist, for he experimented with other fruits than the grape.

Poor Lawson was burned to death by the Indians in the prime of his

career, cutting short experiments which might have materially hastened

the establishment of viticulture in America.

The best account of the grapes of Virginia given in the later colonial

times is that of the historian Robert Beverly who is very explicit in

his description of the sorts growing wild in that State. He describes

them as follows:[58] "Grapes grow there [Virginia] in an incredible

plenty, and variety; some of which are very sweet and pleasant to the

taste, others rough and harsh, and perhaps fitter for wine or brandy. I

have seen great trees covered with single vines, and those vines almost

hid with the grapes. Of these wild grapes, besides those large ones in

the mountains, mentioned by Batt in his discovery, I have observed four

very different kinds, viz:

"One of the sorts grows among the sand banks, upon the edges of the low

grounds, and islands next the bay, and sea, and also in the swamps and

breaches of the uplands. They grow thin in small bunches, and upon very

low vines. These are noble grapes; and though they are wild in the

woods, are as large as the Dutch gooseberry. One species of them is

white, others purple, blue and black, but all much alike in flavor; and

some long, some round.

"A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the swamps

and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and in small

bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes as big as the English

bullace, and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the smell of a fox,

from whence they are called fox grapes. Both these sorts make admirable

tarts, being of a fleshly substance, and perhaps, if rightly managed,

might make good raisins.

"There are two species more, that are common to the whole country, some

of which are black, and some blue on the outside, and some white. They

grow upon vast, large vines, and bear very plentifully. The nice

observer might, perhaps, distinguish them into several kinds, because

they differ in color, size and relish; but I shall divide them only into

two, viz: the early, and the late ripe. The early ripe common grape is

much larger, sweeter, and better than the other. Of these some are quite

black, and others blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three

weeks, or a month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is

from the latter end of August, to the latter end of October. The late

ripe common grapes are less than any other, neither are they so pleasant

to the taste. They hang commonly to the latter end of November, or till

Christmas; all that I have seen of these are black. Of the former of

these two sorts, the French refugees at the Monacan Town made a sort of

claret, though they were gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I

was told by a very good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant,

strong, and full-bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the

wine was but tolerably good, when made of the wild grape, which is

shaded by the woods from the sun, it would be much better, if produced

of the same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard."

Beverly could write with some authority on grapes for he was at that

time much interested in the general question of grape-growing. Besides

he was of an inquiring mind and seems to have been an untiring

experimenter with the agricultural plants of his own and other lands.

Charles Campbell in his introduction to the reprint of _Beverly's

Virginia_ in 1855, gives the following account of a vineyard planted by

the historian: "John Fontaine, son of a Huguenot refugee, having come

over from England to Virginia, visited Robert Beverly, the author of

this work, in the year 1715, at his residence, near the head of the

Mattapony. Here he cultivated several varieties of the grape, native and

French, in a vineyard of about three acres, situated upon the side of a

hill, from which he made in that year four hundred gallons of wine. He

went to very considerable expense in this enterprise, having constructed

vaults of a wine-cellar. But Fontaine comparing his method with that

used in Spain, deemed it erroneous, and that his vineyard was not

rightly managed. The home-made wine Fontaine drank heartily of, and

found it good, but he was satisfied by the flavor of it that Beverly did

not understand how to make it properly. * * * He had laid a sort of

wager with some of the neighboring planters, he giving them one guinea

in hand, and they promising to pay him each ten guineas, if in seven

years he should cultivate a vineyard that would yield at one vintage

seven hundred gallons of wine. Beverly thereupon paid them down one

hundred pounds, and Fontaine entertained no doubt but that in the next

year he would win the thousand guineas." And Beverly won the guineas.

Bolling in his _Sketch of Vine Culture_, 1765, mentions native grapes

only as they indicate to him the adaptability of the country for the

European sorts. Yet he suggests, and was probably the first to do so,

the possibility of hybridization between American and the European

species. He says: "Would it not be well for us to attempt the raising of

new varieties, by marrying our native with foreign vines?" He then gives

a plan whereby the vines may be planted as to "so interlock their

branches as that they shall be completely blended together." He says,

"they will then feed from the blossoms of each other, and when the fruit

is ripe, and if seeds are saved from it and sown in nurseries, * * * it

is probable that we shall obtain other varieties better adapted to our

climates and better for wine and table, than either of those kinds from

which they sprung." Beyond these brief mentions Bolling does not discuss

native grapes, though he tells of the origin of the Bland grape, which

we now know to be a native, and wrongly says that it grew from the seed

of a European raisin.

Antill, in his _Essay on the Cultivation of the Vine_, a treatise

discussed in the previous chapter, gives no varieties of native grapes,

though he says that he had just entered upon a trial of them. His brief

discussion of American vines is well worth quoting in full as showing

the status of the species known to Antill just previous to the

Revolutionary War:[59]

"The reason for my being silent about vines that are natives of America,

is, that I know but little of them, having but just entered upon a trial

of them, when my very ill state of health forbade me to proceed: From

what little observation I have been able to make, I look upon them to be

much more untractable than those of Europe, they will undergo a hard

struggle indeed, before they will submit to a low and humble state, a

state of abject slavery. They are very hardy and will stand a frame, for

they brave the severest storms and winter blasts, they shrink not at

snow, ice, hail or rain; the wine they will make, I imagine from the

austerity of their taste, will be strong and masculine.

"The Fox-Grape, whose berries are large and round, is divided into three

sorts, the white, the dark red and the black; the berries grow but thin

upon the bunches, which are plain without shoulders. They delight most

in a rich sandy lome, here they grow very large and the berries are

sweetest, but they will grow in any grounds, wet or dry; those that grow

on high dry grounds generally become white, and the colour alters to a

dark red or black, according to the lowness and wetness of the ground;

the situation I think must greatly affect the Wine, in strength,

goodness and colour; the berries are generally ripe the beginning of

September, and when fully ripe they soon fall away; thus much I have

observed as they grow wild. What alteration they may undergo, or how

much they may be improved by proper soils and due cultivation I cannot

say.

"There is a small black Grape, a size bigger than the winter Grape, that

is ripe in September; it is pleasant to eat, and makes a very pretty

Wine, which I have drank of, it was four years old, and seemed to be the

better for its age; the colour was amber, owing to the want of knowing

how to extract the tincture; this Grape is seldom to be found; there is

a Vine of them near John Taylor, Esq; at Middletown, Monmouth, and there

are some of them in Mr. Livingston's Vineyard at Piscataqua in

New-Jersey. I think they are well worth propagating.

"The frost or winter Grape is known to every body, both the bunches and

berries are small, and yield but little juice, but the richness of the

Wine may make up for the smallness of the quantity; the taste of the

Grape is austere till pretty hard frosts come, and then it takes a

favourable turn and becomes very sweet and agreeable; this Vine shoots

forth great numbers of slender branches, and might do very well for the

south and southeast sides of a summer-house or close walk, if all the

useless and barren branches were cut away.

"The Vines of America are fit for strong high espaliers, but if I

mistake not, he must watch them narrowly, must take away every

unnecessary and unprofitable branch, and trim them sharp and close, that

means to keep them within bounds."

Peter Legaux, in his patriotic address "To the People of the American

States,"[60] wherein he admonishes them the culture of the vine is a

national duty, was intent, as we have seen, on making the Old World

grape grow in America--even if it were necessary to palm off an American

sort as an Old World kind. He dismisses American grapes with even less

attention than Antill gave them, his sole notice of them being embodied

in the remarks that "with skillful management many of them would make

good and wholesome wines" and that "if the native grapes of America are

not the most eligible for vineyards, others are now within the reach of

its inhabitants." Indirectly he was, however, of great service in

distributing the first native varieties, for as Rafinesque says, "by

calling our Bland and Alexander grapes _Madeira_ and _Cape_, he was

instrumental in diffusing them among those who would not have noticed

nor bought them if known as native vines."

Following Legaux's address of 1800 several treatises were written within

a few years which give us a very clear idea of the status of the

American grapes at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Chief of

these, and probably in chronological order, is a paper in _The Domestic

Encyclopedia_ on the vine, written by James Mease, M. D.[61] It appears

that Dr. Mease wrote in 1802 but the Encyclopedia did not appear until

1804.[62] Embodied in the article is an "interesting paper on the vines

of the United States drawn up by William Bartram at the request of the

editor." Bartram's paper was written in the spring of 1802. Mease's

discussion of the vine merits especial attention. While the best of

Antill's and Legaux's observations are made use of, yet much is added to

them and the paper is far more reasonable in every respect than those of

either of the two previous writers, and is wholly lacking in the

ostentatious modesty and circumlocution of Antill and the grandiloquence

and self esteem of Legaux. It may justly be considered the first

rational discussion of the culture of the grape in America.

Mease's paper deserves attention for another reason. It contains the

first public utterance condemning the culture of the Old World grape and

recommending the cultivation of native grapes. He says: "From the

experience, however, of the editor and his friends who have found much

difficulty in naturalizing foreign vines, he recommends the cultivation

of the native grapes of the United States, particularly the _Vitis

sylvestris_, [_Vitis aestivalis_] or small blue or bunch grape; Bland's,

Tasker's or Alexander's, and the bull-grape of Carolina and Georgia." It

appears from the whole discussion by Mease and Bartram in this treatise

that the only varieties of native grapes cultivated in 1804 were

Alexander's or Tasker's grape, Bland's grape, the Bull grape[63] of

Carolina and Georgia, and the Raccoon grape.

Two years later, 1806, S. W. Johnson[64] and Bernard McMahon[65]

published accounts of the cultivation of the vine. Johnson mentions

three American varieties, the "Bull or Bullet grape, Bland's grape and

the Alexander's or Tasker's grape." Johnson has nothing to say of the

desirability of cultivating the above or other native sorts and confines

his discussion largely to Legaux's work with European grapes. McMahon

advocates the introduction of foreign grapes and says almost nothing

about the native species. As American varieties he mentions those given

by Johnson, omitting the Bull grape.

One of the first, if not the first, extensive centers of native

grape-growing in America was about York, Pennsylvania. In 1818, Mr.

Thomas Eichelberger, an enterprising German vine-grower, set out four

acres of grapes at this place and demonstrated that grapes could be

grown successfully. The original vineyard was increased to about twenty

acres and other plantations were made until in 1826 there were in the

immediate neighborhood of the borough of York one hundred and fifty

acres of vineyards. The account of these vineyards states further:[66]

"In Adam and Westmoreland the culture of the vine is also attended to

and one gentleman in Chester has a vineyard of thirty acres." The grape

most commonly grown in this region was known to the growers as "Black or

York Madeira" and was supposed to have been introduced from the Island

of Madeira. Prince pronounced the grape to be a native and the then

commonly grown Alexander. Other popular sorts in this region were the

York Claret, a native resembling Alexander; and York Lisbon, described

as "having considerable affinity to Alexander but having a larger and

more acid fruit." Beside these there were several less well known sorts

none of which is heard of now. Before the industry began to wane about

York the Catawba and Isabella had taken the place of the first named

sorts and these eventually succumbed for most part to grape diseases. In

looking up the history of varieties of grapes for this work, a

surprisingly large number have been traced back to this early center of

the industry, so many that York and Lancaster Counties, Pennsylvania,

must be counted among the starting places of American viticulture.

We have seen that for some years previous to Johnson and McMahon there

had been efforts to grow _Vitis vinifera_ in many widely separated

regions. The futility of attempting to grow the Old World grape became

apparent, so far as we may judge from written accounts, to but few men,

however. To Dr. James Mease must be accorded the honor of first

perceiving and setting forth in print the fact that American viticulture

must rise from native grapes. Possibly the second man to voice the same

sentiment was Thomas Jefferson, ever alert for the agricultural welfare

of the country, who wrote to John Adlum in 1809, speaking of the

Alexander grape:[67] "I think it will be well to push the culture of

that grape without losing time and efforts in search of foreign vines,

which it will take centuries to adapt to our soil and climate." It is

probable that Jefferson, who it appears was a frequent correspondent of

Adlum's, stimulated the latter to the publication of a book on grape

culture. This appeared in 1823, "for the purpose", as the author says in

his preface, "of diffusing some practical and useful information

throughout the country on the best method of cultivating the native

grape and of making Wine".

Thus Adlum's[68] _Cultivation of the Vine_ was the first American book

on American grapes. The author's intentions, as indicated in his

preface, quoted above, were good; but his book, as an exposition on

native grape culture, is a failure. The work is concerned for most part

with wine-making and his cultural directions are taken almost wholly,

such as they are, from European books. In the last four pages of the

treatise he describes twenty-two varieties of grapes of which perhaps a

dozen are native sorts. In this edition the Catawba is described as the

Tokay but in a second edition, published in 1828, the name is changed

from Tokay to Catawba. Adlum was one of the first to call attention to

the Catawba and was at the time its chief distributor. He advocated in

his book, and in the papers of the time, the establishment of an

experimental farm[69] upon which could be grown "cuttings of the

different species of the native Vine to be found in the United States,

to ascertain their growth, soil, and produce, and to exhibit to the

Nation, a new source of wealth, which has been too long neglected."

Adlum did not write from theory alone for he was the owner and

cultivator of vineyards near Georgetown, in the District of Columbia,

where he grew both native and foreign grapes. The latter he finally

discarded with the statement that the way to success in America "is to

drop most kinds of foreign vines at once (except a few for the table)

and seek for the best kinds of our largest native Grapes". The best

information from Adlum's pen regarding native grapes and their culture

is to be found in the _American Farmer_, published in Baltimore. He

wrote mainly during the years 1824 to 1830. He was neither a clear nor

an accurate writer and his imagination and enthusiasm had full sway at

all times; yet, notwithstanding these faults, he must be counted as one

of the geniuses of his day, as devoted to the welfare of the country, as

having almost a prophetic vision, and as actuated by the best of

motives. His struggle for a national experimental vineyard, the work of

his pen, his dissemination of the Catawba and other grapes, and his

vineyard experiments, give Adlum a high place among the improvers of

American grapes.

John James Dufour gives the next glimpse of the beginnings of American

viticulture in his _Vine Dresser's Guide_ published in Cincinnati in

1826. It is but a glimpse, however, for Dufour was a foreigner, and, as

we have seen, came to America to grow the Old World grape. His efforts

at grape-growing furnished the climax to the two centuries of failures

in growing _Vitis vinifera_ in America but did not benefit the new

viticulture of the country greatly.[70] His only contribution of note

was one made in spite of himself, namely the introduction of the

Alexander, which he incorrectly called Cape, an American grape, as a

commercial variety, Legaux having first brought it prominently to

notice. Dufour would never admit that this variety, the only one to

succeed in his vineyards in Kentucky and Indiana, was a native grape and

says of it in the preface of his book: "I will also try to save the

character of our Cape grapes from being made merely wild grapes, because

some are now found in the woods; and, to put any one in the way to

distinguish wild from tame grapes, I will give the description of the

botanical characters of the blossom of both sorts." In his text he

fulfills the promise in the preface and devotes some pages to "save the

character of our Cape grapes."

Dufour's visit of inspection of the vineyards of the country in 1799 has

been noted in discussing the Old World grape. In this trip only foreign

grapes interested him and he mentioned the wild species but to condemn

them for cultivation. In his book published twenty-seven years later he

shows no change of opinion and though at this time there were a number

of meritorious native sorts he describes only European varieties. Dufour

was a true foreigner and could find little of value in the New World

that did not come from the Old World.

Rafinesque, writing in 1830, in his _American Manual of the Grape

Vines_, gives an account of forty-one species of native grapes.

Unfortunately his "species" are founded upon the slightest differences

in vine or fruit and his observations were so poorly made that his

botanical studies of the grape are now wholly discredited by botanists.

He gives an account of the acreage in vineyards existing in the United

States in 1825 and 1830. This is the earliest estimate of the vineyard

acreage of the country and is therefore a landmark in American

viticulture. It is as follows:[71] "In 1825 I collected an account of

our principal vineyards and nurseries of vines. They were then only 60

of 1 to 20 acres each, altogether 600 acres. While now, in 1830, they

amount to 200 of 3 to 40 acres, or nearly 5000 acres of vineyards. Thus

having increased tenfold within 5 years, at which rate they promise to

become a permanent and increasing cultivation."

Viticulture took its place in the literature of American pomology with

the advent of William Robert Prince's _A Treatise on the Vine_. This

work, magnificent compared with similar books of the time, introduces

native grapes to the fruit-growers of America. Prince was the fourth

proprietor of the same name of the Prince nurseries at Flushing, Long

Island, and he with his predecessors had assiduously cultivated European

varieties of grapes hoping to acclimatize them to American conditions.

It is not a matter of wonder therefore, that much of his book is devoted

to foreign grapes. His collection at Flushing consisted of over four

hundred and fifty sorts and many of these he describes. In spite of his

attraction to the foreign varieties, some of which had been tested in

his nursery for two or three generations, Prince admitted the

impossibility of growing them successfully and recommends to his readers

and patrons the cultivation of native varieties. In the latter regard he

says: "* * * after all my own experiments I have come to this

conclusion, that to establish vineyards of the most profitable

description, with a certainty of regular crops in localities north of

the highlands in this state, _native varieties alone should be

selected_; and the whole of the eastern states will of course be

comprised in this remark."

In his treatise, Prince described about seventy varieties of native

grapes and several of the native species. Prince's descriptions of these

grapes are comprehensive and judging from the sorts described by him

which we now have they are accurate. He grew seedlings from many of

them. He showed a knowledge of the possibilities of hybridization of

American species with _Vitis vinifera_. He solicited and obtained seeds

and vines from all the settled portions of the Union. His grape

correspondents in different parts of America and of the world must have

numbered hundreds. Prince's enthusiasm and perseverance in grape culture

attached to him votaries in all fruit regions and to him more than to

any other man was due that friendly interchange of knowledge and

sentiment regarding grapes which characterized the half century after

the appearance of his book. Such co-operation as was manifested in

grape-growing in the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century

has never been known in the culture of any other species of plant in

this country and to it is largely due the progress of viticulture in

leaps and bounds dating from Prince's time.

With the close of the year 1830, we may consider viticulture a firmly

established industry in America with the native grapes as a basis.

Rafinesque's estimate of the acreage at this time is given on a

preceding page (47). It is worth while considering, very briefly, the

types of grapes under cultivation at this stage of the industry, with

some discussion of the origin of the leading varieties.

The first grape to become generally distributed as a commercial variety,

was, as has been remarked before, the Alexander, or Cape. It came into

prominence, through the deception of Legaux and the credulity of Dufour,

as one of the Viniferas commonly grown at the Cape of Good Hope. It

proved, however, to be an offshoot of the fox grape of the woods, _Vitis

labrusca_, and had been grown, long before Legaux palmed it off as the

Cape, under the names Alexander and Tasker's, Alexander because of its

having been grown by a gardener of this name and Tasker's through its

cultivation on a somewhat extensive scale by a Mr. Tasker in Maryland.

Its history dates back to the years before the Revolutionary War and its

origin was probably on the banks of the Schuylkill in Pennsylvania,

hence another of its many synonyms, Schuylkill Muscadell.

Of the several other native varieties of the Labrusca type cultivated in

1830, two deserve attention for their intrinsic and historical value.

The Catawba, of uncertain origin, as we shall see in its history, and

the Isabella, a native of South Carolina, are both classed by most

viticulturists as of the fox or Labrusca type. The two varieties were

distributed among vine-growers at about the same time but the Catawba,

because of its superior merits, soon took the lead and at the time of

which we write was by far the most popular native grape. These, with the

Alexander, may certainly be considered the forerunners of the cultivated

grapes of the species to which they belong. The Catawba is still in

several great grape regions of the country the standard commercial

variety.

While varieties of _Vitis labrusca_ were first cultivated in the North,

it is probable that _Vitis rotundifolia_ furnished the first

domesticated varieties for the South, and likely, too, before the

northern kinds were cultivated. Among these are the white and black

Scuppernongs, or bullet grapes. _Vitis rotundifolia_, while it refuses

to grow out of its habitat, runs riot from Maryland to Florida from

seashore to mountains and in many diverse soils. The Scuppernongs[72]

are natural offshoots of this species and are known in the South in

legend, tradition and history. Undoubtedly they were cultivated for

their fruit or as ornamentals in garden or vineyards from the earliest

colonial times. It is certain that wine was made from the different wild

types of _Vitis rotundifolia_ from the settlement of Jamestown and if

not brought under cultivation at an early day it was because the

bountifulness of the wild vines obviated the necessity of domesticating

them. It was of this grape that Amadas and Barlowe wrote in 1584 "in all

the world the like abundance is not to be found."

The word Scuppernong[73] is often used to designate a group of grapes

rather than as a varietal name; for, there are the black Scuppernong,

the white or green Scuppernong and the red Scuppernong, all much alike

except in color of fruit and in a few minor characters of vine. Indeed,

where _Vitis rotundifolia_ grows wild, all of the forms are often

included in the term Scuppernong. The species is often known, too, as

the Muscadine or Southern Muscadine.

While the Labruscas were becoming established in the North and the

Scuppernongs in the South, two other species, one northern and one

southern, came into prominence with varieties which for wine-making at

least were far superior to any other native sorts. The southern species

is _Vitis aestivalis_, best represented then and now by Norton while the

northern species is _Vitis riparia_ and its variety under cultivation

was the Clinton, which still remains one of the best representatives of

the species.[74] It is strange that these four species were brought

under cultivation only when wild forms of them, so striking in value

that they still remain a hundred years later standard cultivated

varieties, had been found. _Vitis labrusca_ represented by Catawba,

_Vitis rotundifolia_, by Scuppernong, _Vitis aestivalis_, by Norton, and

_Vitis riparia_, by Clinton, are, after a century of improvement, with

several hundred varieties, scarcely excelled by others of their

species. Yet it is not so much the wonder that grape-breeders have so

little improved upon these first varieties, as that our forefathers

could allow them to grow comparatively neglected at their doors for two

centuries while they wasted time in the attempt to grow a foreign grape

that had been a failure from the very start.

Other species had also been tried at this time. Those indefatigable

botanists and horticulturists, the Princes, had grown plants of what we

now know as _Vitis aestivalis lincecumii_ Munson, _Vitis longii_ Prince,

and _Vitis cordifolia_ Michx., but without finding them of value. It is

interesting to note that the first named species, the Post-oak grape,

now promises to furnish valuable varieties for the South and that it has

some characters desirable for the North if they can be combined with

those of our northern species.

We have followed the grape through the settlement, colonization and

first statehood days of the United States. We have seen that it had its

part, and no mean one, in these dramatic periods. We have found that the

wild grapes of the country, valued but uncultivated for two hundred

years, became through mere transplanting from the woods into the

vineyards, without the slow modifications which nearly all other plants

have had to undergo, one of our most important fruits. The domestication

of four species of American grapes has been briefly traced. The

beginning of American viticulture has been set, somewhat arbitrarily, at

1830, the date of the publication of William Prince's _Treatise on the

Vine_. It remains now to discuss the economic progress of the industry

we have seen launched.

The twenty years following 1830 comprise a period of expansion in

grape-growing unmarked by the introduction of new types or of any new

varieties of particular note. During this time a grape and wine industry

of considerable magnitude was developed about Cincinnati, and the Ohio

River became known as the Rhine of America--a title long since lost and

now applied to the Keuka Lake region in New York. According to

Buchanan,[75] there were 1550 acres of grapes in the Ohio Valley within

twenty miles of Cincinnati; between forty and fifty acres near Hermann,

Missouri; a few vineyards at Belleville, Illinois; and wine was being

made from the Scuppernong grape in North and South Carolina. The

inference from Buchanan is that the above plantations were for the

production of wine; for he specifies that a few vineyards were in

cultivation about New York, Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey,

"but more with a view to supply the market with grapes, than to make

wine."

The last statement is significant for it indicates a change in the grape

industry which really gave life to the viticulture of eastern America.

Until about 1850, grapes were considered valuable and were cultivated

only for wine-making. Previous to this time the literature on the grape

was concerned more with wine-making than with cultivation, varieties or

any other phase of the industry. The American grapes, with few

exceptions, do not make good wines; there were few men in the country

until within recent years who understood wine-making; and the American

people do not take kindly to wines. It was not, therefore, possible to

establish viticulture as an industry of any magnitude in eastern America

when grapes were used for wine alone. It was only when the demand for

table grapes was created and when transportation and market facilities

permitted the supply of the demand that the industry took form and

substance. It is a significant fact that in those regions in the eastern

United States in which grape-growing has been founded and which are

chiefly dependent on wine-making, the industry has not prospered or has

flourished but temporarily.

We have had Rafinesque's survey of the grape industry of the country in

1830 and Buchanan's in 1850. The next record, and a far more complete

one than either of the above, is found in a consular report made by E.

M. Erskine, Secretary of the British Legation at Washington, to the

British government in 1859. Mr. Erskine reported the acreage as

follows:[76] "The banks of the River Ohio are studded with vineyards,

between 1,500 and 2,000 acres being planted in the immediate vicinity of

Cincinnati, with every prospect of a vast increase. At Cleveland, Ohio,

on the southern shore of Lake Erie, there are 100 acres under vine

culture; at Hermann, on the Missouri, 80 miles west of St. Louis, 150 or

200 acres are cultivated almost entirely by Germans; at Booneville,

higher up the same river; at Belleville, on the 'rolling prairies' of

Illinois; at Reading, in Pennsylvania; in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee,

Arkansas, and generally, in at least twenty-two out of the thirty-two

States now constituting the Union, vineyards of more or less promise and

extent have been planted. * * *

"About 3,000 acres are cultivated as vineyards in the state of Ohio; 500

in Kentucky; 1,000 in Indiana; 500 in Missouri; 500 in Illinois; 100 in

Georgia; 300 in North Carolina; 200 in South Carolina, with every

prospect of a rapid increase in all. It is calculated that at least

2,000,000 gallons of wine are now raised in the United States, the

average value of which may be taken at a dollar and a half the gallon."

Grape-growing in New York was not considered worthy of mention by

Erskine; and Buchanan nine years before reported only a few vineyards

about New York City. In the regions of this State now almost wholly

devoted to grape-growing a start had hardly been made in 1850. Yet there

were some commercial vineyards at this time. Deacon Elijah Fay, the

pioneer grape-grower in what is now the great Chautauqua region, planted

the first vines in that district in 1818 and though grape-growing did

not become of importance until three or four decades later yet this

planting was the foundation upon which Deacon Fay built until, largely

through his efforts and example and those of his children, grapes were

grown everywhere about his home. It is doubtful, however, if there were

a hundred acres of commercial vineyards in this region when Erskine made

his report in 1859.

The first plantings made about Keuka Lake, now called the "Rhine of

America", were made by the Rev. William Bostwick at Hammondsport about

1830. He grew the Catawba and Isabella in a small way in his garden and

for years was the only grape-grower in this part of New York. The

commercial industry in this region was not started until 1853 when

Andrew Reisinger, a German vintner, planted two acres of Isabellas and

Catawbas at Harmonyville in the town of Pulteney. From this start

viticulture in the Keuka region grew apace and there must have been four

or five hundred acres of grapes planted when Erskine's report was made

in 1859. The fact that the region was not mentioned in this report may

be accounted for by assuming that Erskine's figures came from men

engaged in making wine and at this time wine was not made in large

quantities in the Keuka district.

There had been experimental vineyards about New York City and along the

Hudson for a century before the time of which we are writing, but these,

as we have seen, being largely of foreign grapes, came to naught.

Probably native grapes were first planted there in a commercial way by

the French Huguenots who settled in Ulster and Orange Counties. At any

rate there is record of a vineyard planted by a Frenchman, John Jacques,

near Washingtonville in 1837. The varieties were Isabella and Catawba

and there were, all told, about half an acre. It is interesting to note

that this vineyard is still producing grapes and that some of the vines

are as vigorous as in their first maturity. Wine-making as an industry

has existed in this region since the vineyard of 1837 came into bearing

but it was not until several years later that table grapes were grown

for the market. In 1859 there must have been two or three hundred acres

of grapes in commercial vineyards in the country adjacent to the Hudson.

Adding five hundred acres from New York to the 6500 reported for the

United States by Erskine in 1859 we have 7000 acres for the whole

country--a small estimate, for several other states known to have

considerable acreages of commercial vineyards were not taken into

account in Erskine's survey.

Before passing to a further consideration of grape statistics we must

note two important events for American viticulture which took place just

previous to the survey which we have been discussing. One of these

brought about a revolution,--almost brought into existence commercial

grape-growing; the other stimulated and laid the foundation of

grape-breeding in this country. The first was the introduction of the

Concord grape; the second was the production of hybrids between the

European and the native grapes.

The history of the Concord will be found in the discussion of that

variety in the chapter on _Varieties of American Grapes_. Its advent is

noted here that it may be set as a landmark in the development of

American grape-culture. It is first recorded in 1852 by the

Massachusetts Horticultural Society as a seedling exhibited by E. W.

Bull. The qualities that have made the Concord so important in

commercial grape-growing are: Adaptability to varying sets of cultural

conditions; fair shipping qualities; hardiness, productiveness and

comparative immunity to fungi and insects. Its influence on the

grape-growing of the country has been great, too, because from it have

come a considerable number of the most valuable varieties of American

grapes; as Worden, Moore Early, Pocklington, Martha and Cottage, all

pure-bred seedlings and many cross-breds.

At a meeting of the American Pomological Society in Philadelphia in

1852, Dr. William W. Valk of Flushing, Long Island, exhibited several

bunches of fruit from a seedling grape which he had grown from seeds of

Black Hamburg produced from blossoms fertilized by Isabella.[77] The

cross had been made in 1845, the first fruit was borne in 1850, and in

1851 specimens of it were examined by Downing who wrote, "There can be

no doubt that this is the first genuine cross between the foreign grapes

and our natives."[78] The name of the variety, given by the originator,

is Ada. Dr. Valk gave full accounts of his hybrid seedlings in the

_Horticulturist_ in 1851,[79] and in the _Proceedings of the American

Pomological Society_ in 1852.[80] He had previously written on the

subject of hybridization, an interesting paper having been contributed

to Hovey's _Magazine_ as early as 1845.[81] All available information

shows that Valk's is the first recorded hybrid between a native and the

foreign grape. Yet the honor of such a production has usually been given

to John Fisk Allen and to the grape, Allen's Hybrid. For the conception

of hybridity between species we can go back to the beginning of the

cultivation of native grapes. Nearly thirty years before, Nuttall, the

then famous botanist of Harvard University, had recommended such

hybridization to American grape-growers.[82] Dufour mentions its

possibilities in his _Vine Dresser's Guide_.[83] In 1830, Prince

discussed the whole matter and gave specific directions for

hybridizing.[84] Indeed it is not unlikely that Prince, who says he grew

ten thousand seedling plants "from an admixture under every variety of

circumstance" grew the first such hybrid but we have nothing more

definite as to this than the above statement.

In 1854, two years following its report of E. W. Bull's "new seedling,"

the Concord, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society showed in its

exhibits another grape scarcely less worthy of note than the Concord. It

was a hybrid between the Golden Chasselas and the Isabella produced by

John Fisk Allen of Salem, Massachusetts. The new variety, the Allen's

Hybrid, mentioned in a preceding paragraph, had some intrinsic value

but, of more importance, was the first introduction of its kind and

started similar work which gave us many interesting and some valuable

grapes.

Soon after the production of Allen's Hybrid, E. S. Rogers of Salem,

Massachusetts, and J. H. Ricketts of Newburgh, New York, began to give

grape-growers varieties, the results of hybrids between _Vitis vinifera_

and _Vitis labrusca_, so promising that for a time enthusiasm and

speculation ran riot. Possibly at no other period has the interest in

grape-growing been so keen as during the decade succeeding the

introduction of these hybrids. It was the "golden era" for the grape

propagators. One old nurseryman tells of carrying, during this boom,

over a thousand dollars worth of rooted grape cuttings on his back from

the nursery to the express office.

Though there was no panic among grape-growers as the result of

speculation in hybrids, lovers of grapes the country over were greatly

disappointed in the hybrid varieties. The fruit of many of the hybrids

produced at this time is of superior quality and many of them are still

grown by amateurs. But the vines of all first generation hybrids with

Vinifera produced so far, lack hardiness, vigor and usually

productiveness; they are susceptible to fungi and the phylloxera and

many of them must be cross-pollinated to secure fruit. It is only when

the blood of the native species greatly predominates, as in Delaware,

Brighton and Diamond, that we have obtained sorts of commercial value

through the admixture of foreign blood. But the interest aroused by

Allen's Hybrid still continues and in every part of the country may be

found some man who hybridizes grapes with the hope that through well

planned crosses or a lucky chance he may obtain the grape of grapes for

America. Such attempts, stimulated by the hybrids of the fifties, have

produced most of our American varieties.

The time between 1853, the date of the introduction of the Concord, and

1880 can be singled out as the period in which viticulture made its

great growth in eastern America. The first limit is set because the

Concord gave commercial grape-growing its initial impulse; the second

limit is put at 1880, because at about that time grapes and wine from

California began to compete with the eastern product to such an extent

that prices fell and plantings were curtailed. Curtailment did not begin

so early as this in New York but for the country at large the period of

great expansion ended at about 1880. Fortunately we have an accurate

statistical report of the condition of grape culture in the United

States at this time. It is found in a work entitled, _A Report Upon the

Statistics of Grape Culture and Wine Production in the United States for

1880_.[85] The report was compiled by Dr. William McMurtrie under the

direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture.

Statistics are given for all of the states of the Union but a glance at

the tables shows that by this time viticulture had become a specialized

industry and that the areas devoted to it are more or less localized.

The main areas, with their acreage for 1880, may be set forth as

follows:

The Eastern region, comprising the States of New York and Pennsylvania,

14,590 acres.

The Middle region, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 17,634 acres.

The Western region, Kansas and Missouri, 10,918 acres.

The Southern region, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and

Georgia, 10,707 acres.

The Pacific region, California, Arizona and New Mexico, 35,518 acres.

Outside of these five regions there were in the United States, according

to McMurtrie's report, 12,316 acres. The total acreage for the United

States in 1880 was 101,683 acres; the production of wine was 23,453,827

gallons. Unfortunately the total production of grapes is not given.

The following data are taken from the agricultural statistics of 1890

and show well the growth of viticulture in ten years though it is

probable that the figures for 1880 were far too low. For the Eastern

region, 51,000 acres; the Middle region, 42,633 acres; Western region,

17,306 acres; Southern region, 17,092 acres; Pacific region, 213,230

acres; for the territory outside of these divisions, 60,000 acres. Total

area, 401,261 acres. Excluding the acreage of the Pacific division we

have 188,031 acres for American grapes, assuming that all of the grapes

grown on the Pacific Coast belong to _Vitis vinifera_.

It is interesting to note that in 1890 four-fifths of the grapes grown

in the Eastern region, New York and Pennsylvania, were for table use and

that in round numbers the production for this purpose amounted to 60,687

tons, requiring 5000 cars for transportation. Of grapes sold to wineries

there were 15,172 tons. The varieties most largely grown were, in order

named, Concord, Catawba, Delaware, and Niagara.

In the Middle region, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, about half the grapes

grown were for table use and half for wine. By far the largest part of

the grapes grown in this region was in Ohio, only about one-fourth of

the total area being in the other two states. Between 1880 and 1890,

viticulture scarcely held its own in this division. The decrease in the

value of the product, competition with California, and, more

particularly, ravages of insects and fungi were the causes of the

falling off in planting. In some localities many vineyards were

destroyed. The grapes sold for table use in this region amounted to

50,337 tons; to wineries, 14,456 tons.

So, too, in the Western region, Missouri and Kansas, but little progress

was made during this ten years and for the same reasons, though the

devastation in Missouri was caused chiefly by black-rot, which begun to

be troublesome about 1875. The plantings in Missouri were largely for

wine-making but in Kansas, which contained 5542 of the 17,306 acres for

this region, about half of the crop was sold for table use. The grapes

for table use in this region amounted to 30,794 tons, for wineries, 8290

tons.

The crop in the Southern region was about equally divided between wine

and table grapes, the production in 1889 amounting to 1,165,832 gallons

of wine and 14,539 tons of table grapes. The new plantings about

equalled the acreage destroyed so that in total area the region was

about holding its own. The chief market for the table grapes was in the

North where they were sold early in the season at prices ranging from

fifteen to twenty-five cents a pound.

We are concerned with the Pacific region in that its grape products,

especially its wines, compete with those of eastern America. The growth

of viticulture in the Pacific region in the decade we are discussing was

little short of marvelous. In 1880 the acreage was 35,518 acres and in

1890, 213,230 acres--much greater than that of all the eastern regions,

and the production of grapes being more than proportionately greater

because of the greater productiveness of the vines. In this region

43,414 tons were sold for table grapes; 173,037 tons for wine; 41,166

tons were made into raisins and 23,252 tons used for dried grapes and

other purposes than table grapes. The grand total for the region was

280,869 tons against 201,270 for all of eastern America. These figures

give an idea of how formidable a competitor to eastern America

California had become by 1890.

The census of 1900 shows but little increase in the total production of

American grapes. A few figures will show the relative status of

viticulture in the several regions in 1890 and 1900.

1890 1900

Tons of Tons of

grapes grown grapes grown

Eastern region 75,859 147,411

Middle region 64,793 58,917

Western region 39,084 14,784

Southern region 21,534 16,886

California region 280,869 362,323

All of the regions we have been discussing, in which native grapes are

grown, show a considerable falling off in production excepting the

eastern one where the increase more than counterbalances the decrease in

the other regions. The census report for 1900 shows three new states in

the list of those producing grapes in commercial quantities. In the

decade preceding, Michigan came up from an insignificant commercial

production in 1890 to fifth rank in 1900 with 20,765 tons. Iowa and

Oklahoma, states from which grapes were not reported in commercial

quantities in 1890, produced 3701 and 3055 tons in 1900.

The shifting of grape areas indicated in the above paragraph was caused

for most part by the grape diseases. The mildew and rot had ruined the

grape industry in some of the older regions. The newer regions, as in

Michigan, either enjoy comparative immunity from these troubles or the

vineyards had not yet been attacked by them. In the case of the eastern

region, New York and Pennsylvania, in the Chautauqua district, along the

shores of Lake Erie in both states, where the production increased

greatly during this decade, the vineyards are almost wholly immune to

black-rot and are comparatively free from the mildew. In the other grape

districts of this region these troubles are kept well in check by

spraying.

The statistics given in the last few paragraphs show how greatly the

grape-growing of eastern America has increased in the last half century.

When one considers that at the time Erskine made his survey in 1859

there were but 6100 acres of grapes in the whole of this great region

and that the culture of the European varieties was impossible, the total

acreage grown in 1900, namely, 237,998 acres, makes an astounding

figure. The results achieved seem all the greater when one considers

that many of the best varieties now grown are the first and scarcely any

are further removed than the second generation from wild plants. It is

doubtful if any other cultivated plants have attained such importance as

our native grapes in so short a time from the wild state. Yet their

domestication has scarcely begun and few who grow them realize their

possibilities.

THE WINE[86] AND GRAPE JUICE INDUSTRIES.

For over 200 years the grapes grown on this continent were almost

wholly for wine-making. Yet the production of grapes was not sufficient

to sustain a wine industry until the middle of the nineteenth century.

When, with the introduction of new varieties of grapes and of better

methods of growing them, the crop became sufficient in volume to support

wine-making as an industry, its progress was checked by the enormous

demand for table grapes, a demand not known in other countries, and by

the cheapness of California wines. Furthermore the grapes most commonly

cultivated, as the Concord, Worden and Niagara, do not make good wines;

and knowledge and facilities for wine-making have not been such that the

best wines could be made with varieties adapted for the purpose. All of

these obstacles, to which we may add the fact that Americans are not a

wine-drinking people, have prevented the building up of a wine industry

as it exists in other grape-growing countries.

Although the United States stands second or third in the list of

grape-producing countries it took lowest rank in wine production in

1900, falling below the small countries of Greece and Switzerland and

such comparatively undeveloped countries as Chili and Argentine. Since

by far the greater proportion of American wines come from the European

grapes of the Pacific coast, it can be seen that wine made from American

grapes is but a drop in the bucket in the world's production. Reliable

statistics of viticulture in the United States were not taken until

1890, but careful estimates, as we have seen, had been made by several

men at different periods. These with the last two census reports show

the output of wine in this country to be, in round numbers, as follows:

Gallons

1850 250,000

1860 500,000

1870 5,000,000

1880 15,000,000

1890 24,000,000

1900 30,000,000

============

According to the _American Wine Press_,[87] the leading authority on

wines in this country, the vintage of 1907 shows the following figures:

Gallons

Southern States 1,000,000

New Jersey 250,000

New York 4,000,000

Ohio 2,500,000

Missouri 1,500,000

California, dry 30,000,000

California, sweet 10,000,000

Western States 500,000

All other States 500,000

------------

Total wine yield 50,250,000

============

Subtracting the product of California from the total we have

approximately the yield of wine from native grapes.

The manufacture of champagne[88] from native grapes is beginning to be

an important adjunct to grape-growing and is of especial importance in

New York which is the chief seat of the new industry. According to

statistics from the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce

and Labor,[89] more than two million bottles of genuine champagne wine

are now produced annually in the United States. The figures compiled by

the Bureau of Statistics show that the manufacture of champagne has

quadrupled in ten years and that New York is by far the largest producer

in this class of wines. It is held by the writers of the circular quoted

above, and a careful study seems to have been made of the subject, that

the American product compares favorably with that produced in other

countries and that native champagnes are steadily improving with the

increased experience of the American producer.

The largest manufacturers of champagne are located about Keuka Lake,

Steuben County, New York. About 75 per ct. of the total output of the

country is manufactured here. The process used is the French one of

fermentation in the bottle and a number of distinct brands are made

which in color, taste, sparkle and purity are rapidly approaching the

high quality of the celebrated French champagnes. Considerable champagne

is also made in Orange County in the southeastern part of New York, in

Northern Ohio, in Missouri, and a small amount from European grapes in

California.

The manufacture of unfermented grape juice[90] is becoming an industry

in New York and promises to substantially increase the production of

grapes. Grape juice is what its name purports, the juice of the grape

undiluted, unsweetened and unfermented. A good grade of grape juice

contains no preservatives, the necessity for such being removed in the

process of making, the chief operation of which is sterilization by heat

whereby the germs of fermentation are killed. The product is an ancient

one, as the Greeks, Hebrews and Assyrians used it as new wine; but the

process of making an unfermented grape juice that could be kept for an

indefinite length of time is quite modern, and is the outcome of the

discoveries of the last half century regarding the control of the agents

of fermentation.

The grape juice industry of the country is largely confined to New York

and to the Chautauqua grape belt in the western part of the State. About

one-fifth of the grape crop of this region was turned into grape juice

in 1907. The output of the Chautauqua region is as follows: 1904,

400,000 gallons; 1905, 600,000 gallons; 1906, 1,000,000 gallons; 1907,

1,500,000 gallons. The Concord is used almost entirely in the

manufacture of grape juice though a few other dark-colored grapes make a

very good product. There is but little demand for a light-colored grape

juice but some is made. Since the European grape does not make a good

unfermented juice there is no fear among growers of native grapes of

competition from California or Europe. The rapid growth which this

industry has made is most encouraging to grape-growers for it promises

to furnish a permanent and profitable demand for good grapes.

Raisins[91] are not made from American grapes.[92] So far no varieties

of the native species have been developed with sufficient sugar and

solid contents to make a raisin acceptable to the markets. Even were

there varieties from which raisins could be made, it is very doubtful if

the climate of eastern America during picking and curing time is such

that raisins could be made in competition with the product of

California, now the greatest of the world's raisin producing regions,

where the climate is almost perfectly adapted to the industry.