The grapes of New York
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Title: The grapes of New York
Author: U. P. Hedrick
Contributor: N. O. Booth
Maxwell Jay Dorsey
O. M. Taylor
R. Wellington
Release date: June 15, 2014 [eBook #45978]
Most recently updated: November 28, 2024
Language: English
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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.
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.
CHAPTER III
THE VITICULTURE OF NEW YORK
The history of the viticulture of eastern United States shows that the
regions in which grapes have been most largely grown in the past have
come into prominence, had their day, and then suffered a decline. The
reasons for the more or less temporary character of grape regions are
becoming more and more apparent as our knowledge of grape-growing
increases. The grape, more than most other domesticated plants, is
profoundly influenced by climate, soil, cultural treatment, and insect
and fungus pests. In any region in which the grape succeeds at all well,
conditions are more favorable at the start of the industry than later;
this is especially true as regards soils, and the insect and fungus
pests. In a discussion of any phase of grape culture, in a broad sense,
the conditions under which the fruit is grown must receive careful
consideration. We therefore include in this chapter a discussion of the
characters which most strongly influence grapes in vine, fruit and
general adaptability; also a brief discussion of the regions in which
native grapes have been successfully grown in America; and, more
particularly, an account of the viticulture and the grape regions of New
York.
In their wild state the various species of native grapes seem adapted to
a great diversity of soils and conditions. But under successful
cultivation varieties of the several species are confined to somewhat
restricted regions and even localities. Often a grape variety will
succeed on one shore of a lake or river and not on the other; on one
slope of a hill but not another. It is difficult to point out the
determinants of successful grape culture. Adaptability can be known
positively in many cases only by trial; for neither conditions of soil,
nor climate, nor lay of land determines with certainty the adaptability
of a given locality. Oftentimes one variety of a species may not be
successful while another is completely so. Many varieties reach
perfection in one region or locality but not in another though the
conditions may seem very similar. So great is the influence of local
environment, oftentimes, that a variety grown in one locality might not
be recognized as the same grape when produced under other conditions.
The chief natural factors which govern the distribution of varieties of
grapes are: Latitude and altitude; temperature of air and soil; water
supply; the chemical and physical properties of the soil; air currents;
and insects and fungi.
Latitude and altitude very largely determine the annual temperature, the
amount and intensity of sunlight, and the length of the growing
season--all very important factors in growing grapes. Species and
varieties of grapes are usually adapted to regions having about the same
latitude; northern types do not succeed in the South nor the reverse.
Length of season has more to do with the adaptation of grapes than the
degree of heat or cold, for some southern sorts are hardy in vine in the
North but the seasons in the northern latitude are not sufficiently long
for the fruit to mature. On the other hand, northern varieties mature
too quickly in the South and pass through maturity to decay with too
great rapidity. The metes and bounds of latitude are often set aside in
grape-growing by local modifications. Thus it often happens that valleys
in regions not generally adapted to viticulture are so protected from
cold winds, so open to sunshine, or are so free from fogs or frosts as
to furnish ideal conditions for grape-growing.
Probably the chief factor in determining the adaptability of a region to
grape culture is temperature. Each of the different species and
varieties of grapes requires a certain amount of warmth for its best
development and can endure but a certain degree of cold. The temperature
of a region is chiefly determined by latitude, altitude and proximity to
large bodies of water, though variations in the surface of the country
are often important modifying agents of temperature and especially
influence spring and fall frosts.
The grape does best in an equable temperature and does not thrive in
regions where there is a great daily range. Regions and seasons in which
the temperature is comparatively low in the growing months of May, June
and July and high, with much sunshine, in the maturing months of August,
September and October, produce the best grapes in the latitude of New
York. An average of from 55° to 65° for the first named period and of
from 65° to 75° for the second are ideal temperature conditions for the
grape.
This fruit is very sensitive to moisture conditions. Not only must the
total rainfall for the year be taken into consideration but its
distribution throughout the seasons must be considered. The grape does
best with comparatively little rainfall. When the rainfall is the least
possible amount for a good growth of vine the grape crop will be the
largest, of best quality and most free from fungi. Wet seasons, and
especially wetness during the months of maturing, are disastrous to both
quantity and quality of grapes. Thus, in New York it is not possible,
with most varieties, to produce good grapes if the average is above six
inches each for the three growing months and five inches each for the
maturing months. It is far better for the crop that it be as low as four
inches for the first named period and two inches for the second period.
Superfluous moisture in the soil favors too great a growth of vine,
checks and weakens the root system, prevents proper setting of fruit,
and favors fungi, but hinders the multiplication of phylloxera. In
particular, a comparatively dry soil is desirable for grapes because of
its influence on the development of the root system. In dry soils large
root systems are developed in the search for the water that the plant
must have. When intense droughts occur plants that have stood in damp
soils have not sufficient roots to supply the necessary water to the
aerial parts and the vines suffer in consequence. Some species and
varieties are better fitted for withstanding an excess of moisture than
others.
The soil exercises a great influence in determining the suitability of a
region for viticulture. Several factors act as soil determinants: (1)
Fertility; (2) physical characters; (3) soil heat. It is necessary to
study each species, and even their varieties, to discover their powers
of adaptation to different soils and it is possible to indicate here the
good and bad qualities of soils only in the most general way. In the
discussion of species and varieties the soil preferences of the
different botanical and horticultural groups will be stated more fully.
Great fertility, as a natural characteristic, is not necessary in grape
regions. Fertilizers, and especially the use of stable manures and cover
crops, can be made to supply very largely a lack of fertility. Soils
naturally too rich produce an overdevelopment of vine. Some species, as
_Vitis rupestris_, grow naturally in very poor soils, the habitat of the
latter being dry ravines and stony places having comparatively little
organic matter. The varieties of _Vitis rupestris_ promise well for
stocks upon which to grow other varieties in certain soils. In Europe
calcareous or limy soils are not considered well adapted to
grape-growing, but in America we often find very good vineyards on such
soils.
The physical character of a soil has more to do with the welfare of the
grape than fertility. Sand and clay are the two distinct types of soils
usually found in general agricultural regions. As one or the other
predominates soils take their character. So far as growth alone is
concerned these two types of soil do not influence the vines much
differently, but the fruit in quantity and quality is greatly influenced
by them. According as to whether sand or clay is in excess a soil is
loose or compact, retains or gives up water, and is warm or cool. A
compact soil is made so by an excess of clay or of very fine sand.
Grapes require a light friable soil and compactness is often a serious
defect. Usually species and varieties with large, thick roots are better
adapted to compact soils than those with small root systems, probably
because the strong roots have greater penetrating power than the weak
ones. Lightness and permeability of the soil may be influenced by
subsoiling and through the use of stable manure and cover crops, but a
hard soil is generally so ill adapted to grape-growing that this fruit
should not be planted on it.
The heat-retaining properties of a soil must always be taken into
account in growing grapes. The great preference which many varieties of
grapes show for sands, loams, shales and gravels, depends largely upon
the greater amount of heat found in such soils. In northern regions it
is especially needful that the soil furnish an abundance of bottom heat
for the grape. The removal of an excess of moisture is helpful in
regulating soil heat; and, other things being equal, a well-drained soil
is warmest.
Grapes grow more or less well in any soil adapted to fruit-growing. It
is not true, even, that the grape is more particular as to soils than
other fruits. But the necessity of having great quantity and high
quality of fruit in profitable viticulture makes it very necessary to
take their preferences as to soil into strict account.
Air currents are of minor importance compared with the other factors
discussed yet are worthy of attention. They are chiefly of importance in
grape-growing in the suppression of fungi. It has long been noticed
that in regions where there are strong currents of air the dreaded
black-rot and the mildew are not nearly so harmful. Winds may be
beneficial, too, when they bring warm air, when moisture laden, when
they keep frosty air in motion, and possibly they have an effect on some
small insects as the leaf-hopper. On the contrary they may be
detrimental when too dry, strong or cold. Natural or artificial
windbreaks may greatly modify the effects of wind currents though their
value is usually overestimated as their benefits are often offset by the
undesirable conditions caused.
Lastly, the prevalence or lack of insects and fungi in a region may
decide its value for viticulture. In several instances flourishing
viticultural industries have been destroyed in this country by insects
or fungi, or both. In other regions the present supremacy of commercial
grape-growing is almost wholly due to the fact that neither insects nor
fungi are seriously troublesome. The advent of spraying and a better
knowledge of the life histories of insects and fungi are lessening the
importance of the parasite factor in determining the value of a region
for grape-growing, but it is still of high importance.
We are now prepared to take up a discussion of the grape regions of New
York.
The states in which the growing of American grapes takes the rank of an
industry are, according to the census of 1900, in order of production:
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas,
Missouri, Georgia and Oklahoma. The value of the product in the leading
state was $2,763,711; in the last named state, $128,500. American
viticulture, so far as native grapes are concerned, is almost wholly
confined to twelve states. But viticultural interests are still further
localized. In New York the industry is divided into four great regions,
the Chautauqua district, the Central Lakes district, the Hudson
district, and the Niagara district. In Pennsylvania and Ohio
grape-growing is largely confined to the shores of Lake Erie; in
Michigan to a small district about the towns of Lawton and Paw Paw; in
Missouri, Hermann is the representative point for grape culture.
THE CHAUTAUQUA DISTRICT.
Of the four grape regions of New York the Chautauqua district is by far
the most important though, excepting the Niagara, the most recent in
development. The Chautauqua grape belt lies along the southeastern shore
of Lake Erie. It averages about three miles in width and is about fifty
miles long. Its northeastern boundary is in Erie County but not far from
the line dividing Erie and Chautauqua Counties; its western boundary, in
New York, is the Pennsylvania line, an arbitrary division, for the
district passes into Pennsylvania. This narrow belt passes through the
towns of Hanover, Sheridan, Dunkirk, Pomfret, Portland, Westfield and
Ripley in Chautauqua County. Not all, but much, of the land is suitable
for grape-growing.
The topography, geology, and soils of this grape-belt have been
carefully mapped and studied.[93][94]
The grape land is, as we have seen, a narrow strip of comparatively low
land which borders the shore of Lake Erie. On the southern boundary of
this low plain is a high hill or escarpment parallel to the lake and
surmounting the grape belt throughout its entire length. This
escarpment, the "Hill", ranges from 500 to 700 feet above the plain and
from 500 to 1000 feet above the lake. The plain is gently rolling and
ascends from the bluff of the lake to the escarpment with a grade of
from one to two hundred feet to the mile, forming in some places
well-marked foot-hills to the escarpment proper.
The bed rock, according to Tarr[95] is upper Devonian shales and sand
stones in both plain and escarpment. On the face of the escarpment and
on the table lands of some of the foot-hills the soil is so thin that
the plough frequently touches bed rock. This seldom comes to the surface
on the plain except in stream beds and in shale ridges, but is to be
found in fragments of greater or less size and in more or less abundance
throughout the soils of the entire district. Everywhere on the plain may
be seen ancient beach lines. These rise usually in two well-defined
terraces but not infrequently there are from two to five distinct
terraces between the lake and the escarpment. All conditions point to
the theory that these ridges are wave built and therefore of lake
origin. The plain, the gravel ridges, the foot-hills and the high
escarpment are the chief topographical features of the grape belt.
The grape soils of the district, as mapped by the Bureau of Soils of the
United States Department of Agriculture,[96] are Dunkirk clay, Dunkirk
gravel, Dunkirk gravelly loam, Dunkirk sandy loam and Dunkirk shale
loam. The grapes grown upon the several soils vary somewhat as to
quantity per acre, as to flavor and sugar content and as to shipping
quality.
The largest areas of Dunkirk clay are found running back from the lake
east and west from Barcelona, in the neighborhood of Van Buren Point and
about Dunkirk. In these regions the soil is a clay loam from several
inches to a foot deep resting upon a stiffer and more tenacious clay.
Vineyards located on this soil are very productive but the quality is
not as high as in the fruit grown on the shale loam, though for most
part superior to that produced on the gravel and sandy loams.
Dunkirk gravel soils are found on the ridges at the foot of the
escarpment on the southern boundary of the district from Pennsylvania to
the eastern boundary of the grape district. Throughout most of this
distance there are from one to three parallel ridges varying from a few
rods to a half mile in breadth; at many places the ridges run into each
other or have been brought together by cultivation. It was upon this
gravel that vines were first successfully grown. Grapes upon this soil
ripen a week or more earlier than upon other soils and these lands are
therefore largely planted with vineyards to supply the early market and
they have a larger proportion of early varieties than vineyards on other
soils. The Niagara is thought to do especially well on Dunkirk gravel.
Dunkirk gravelly loam is found running through practically the whole
grape belt at the base or on the top of the gravel ridges; if at the
base, to lakeward of the ridges. It is a sandy loam with much fine
gravel and is underlaid at a depth of three feet with sand and shale
fragments. On the surface it much resembles the gravel soils having had
considerable top gravel brought there by washing and by cultivation. The
grapes grown on these soils are very similar to those produced on the
gravels though there are some minor differences. Some varieties produce
larger berries on this soil, and some sorts, it is claimed, a greater
amount of wood.
The Dunkirk sandy loams occur in large irregular areas bordering the
lake or running from the lake bluff back to the escarpment. By far the
largest of these areas is found about Fredonia and Dunkirk and running
east and west of these towns. A second area is found in the neighborhood
of Brocton and Portland and especially to the north and west. There are
smaller areas east of Barcelona and northwest of Ripley. Nearly all of
the sandy loam soils are found on undulating or rolling land. The soil
is a brownish-yellow loam from a half foot to a foot in depth. There are
some deviations from the type and yet the true sandy loams can be very
easily recognized. The soil is of rather heavy texture making good
farming land and producing large crops of grapes of slightly inferior
quality.
The Dunkirk shale loams are found upon the hill or escarpment. These
form the grape lands farthest removed from the lake. This soil is
comparatively thin, not averaging more than a half-foot in depth and is
hardly ever found a foot deep. It is brown in color with much coarse
fragmentary shale on the surface and underlaid with a considerable body
of heavy clay. Part of the shale loam land lies on slopes too steep and
rough for cultivation but the hillside table lands of this soil are
especially well adapted to grape-growing. The grapes grown here contain
much sugar, therefore keep and ship well, have a high flavor, and are
especially sought for in wine-making; grapes on these soils mature
early, have tough skins, but are only medium-sized berries. The yields
are much more variable on this soil than on the others because of the
great variation in the depth of soil. On deep soils of this loam the
yield is all that could be desired. Because of the lay of the land, and
the nature of the soil, there is much washing and cultivation must be
done judiciously.
The climate is exceptionally favorable for the grape-grower in the
Chautauqua district. It is, if anything, of more importance than the
land; for grape soils are not uncommon, but a grape climate as near
perfection as that of this region is indeed rare. The influence of the
lake in modifying the temperature of the region is the chief climatic
factor. This influence need not be dwelt upon here for it is common
knowledge that large bodies of water temper cold winter weather, hold
back vegetation in spring, equalize night and day temperatures of
summer, lengthen the growing season and ward off autumn frosts. Each of
these influences is highly favorable to the growth of the grape. The
escarpment on the southeastern boundary of the belt has a most decided
influence on the climate chiefly because it confines the influence of
the lake to a narrow belt. When the escarpment becomes low, as at the
two extremities of the belt, grape-growing ceases to be profitable. When
the distance between the lake and the escarpment is great, the climatic
conditions are not so favorable.
The air currents and rainfall of the region are especially favorable.
The in-shore breeze of the day and the off-shore breeze at night keep
the air in constant motion, thus preventing frosts in spring and autumn,
and probably cause in part the great degree of immunity to black-rot and
mildew. Unfortunately, data to determine accurately the rainfall of the
district cannot be had but such as have been taken indicate that the
rainfall is comparatively light for the maturing months of August,
September and October and not heavy for the three preceding growing
months. Residents of the grape belt claim that most of the heavy showers
pass over the hills or down the lake. The whole region is proverbially
free from heavy dews. Rain and dew are favorable to black-rot and other
fungi and the lack of them still further accounts for the immunity to
these pests in the region.
The history of the rise of grape-growing in Chautauqua County forms an
interesting chapter in the economic development of New York. The first
vines in the Chautauqua district were planted by Elijah Fay[97] in 1818,
near the present town of Brocton. These were wild vines of _Vitis
labrusca_ from Deacon Fay's boyhood home in New England. The vines grew
luxuriantly but the fruit was not satisfactory and in 1822 this worthy
pioneer obtained at great trouble roots of Miller's Burgundy,
Sweetwater and Black Hamburg. But the second experiment was even more
disastrous than the first as he got no fruit. The real start was made in
1824 when Mr. Fay obtained vines of Catawba and Isabella from Prince of
Flushing, Long Island. The vines were trained on trellises. The vineyard
covered a plot two by eight rods in extent. From a rise of land near
this spot one now sees grapes everywhere, probably a greater acreage of
them than can be seen from any other spot east of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1830 Deacon Fay made ten gallons of wine, the first for the region.
In 1834, Lincoln Fay, a nephew of Elijah Fay, started the sale of grape
vines but not many vines were sold for commercial plantings until as
late as 1850. In 1859 there were in the town of Portland but twenty
acres of bearing grape vines where now are thousands. During the decade
that followed, the Concord was generally introduced giving the
viticulture of the region a great impetus. Grapes were not yet grown for
table use to any great extent and a large acreage could not be used for
wine-making. In 1859 a wine-cellar was built by Fay, Ryckman[98] and
Haywood at Brocton and for a long while this company used almost the
total crop of the region. It was not until the early seventies that the
grape-growers sought other markets than the wine-cellars. In 1870 there
were about 600 acres of vineyards in Chautauqua County.
The first table-grapes of the region were packed in twenty-pound splint
baskets. Dunkirk was the primary marketing place and the fruit was
shipped from here to various large cities by through freight. The
transportation facilities were not satisfactory and in 1880 Jonas Martin
of Brocton tried the experiment of shipping a carload of grapes to
Philadelphia. This was the first carload of grapes sent from Chautauqua
County. In 1906, 4690 carloads were shipped and 844 were converted into
wine and grape juice, representing all told $2,482,822.[99] Until 1883
the markets were confined to nearby cities but in this year a carload
was safely sent to Spokane, after which time markets were found from the
Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf to Upper Canada. The first
grape-growers' union was formed in 1886 as the Chautauqua Grape Growers'
Shipping Association and its organization marked a new epoch in the
grape industry of the district. Smaller and larger organizations have
since been formed and at the present time about 80 per ct. of the entire
crop is handled by a growers' union known as the Chautauqua and Erie
Grape Company.
According to Mr. G. E. Ryckman, in the early days of the grape industry
in this region the fruit was shipped in round paper baskets holding from
three to five pounds; later these were made of wood. Sometime in the
early seventies twenty-pound splint baskets, which were supposed to be
returned to the owners, were introduced. These were superseded by the
twelve-pound climax basket; the size of this basket was soon reduced to
ten pounds, then to nine, then to eight. Meanwhile a small five-pound
basket made on the same lines as the larger one came into use but soon
shrunk into a four-pound receptacle. The eight and the four-pound climax
baskets are now generally used throughout the region. Increasing
quantities are now being shipped to large cities in trays with slatted
tops holding about forty pounds each; these grapes are used by the
purchaser for wine-making. The wine and grape juice industries of the
region have been touched upon in the general discussion of these
industries.
An actual canvass made by this Station in the winter of 1906-7 shows
there are in the Chautauqua grape belt at this time 30,000 acres of
grapes. The census report of 1900 gave the number of vines for the
county as 11,914,706, which at the usual number of vines per acre gives
about 20,000 acres for the district. This figure was probably low,
though that of the Station for 1907 may be somewhat high. The acreage is
distributed in towns approximately as follows: Portland 9500; Westfield
5700; Ripley 5700; Pomfret 4600; Hanover 1950; Sheridan 1950; Dunkirk
600. A correspondent writes that the grape shipments for 1907 indicate a
considerably larger acreage for the towns of Hanover and Sheridan than
are here given. The average yield of grapes is a little less than two
tons per acre for the region. The value of vineyards varies from $100 to
$400 per acre.
The crop for the past seven years calculated by _The Grape Belt_[100]
from figures secured from the railroads are as follows:
"Season of 1900 8000 carloads
"Season of 1901 6669 carloads
"Season of 1902 5062 carloads
"Season of 1903 2952 carloads
"Season of 1904 7479 carloads
"Season of 1905 5362 carloads
"Season of 1906 5634 carloads"
The seeming decrease in carloads shipped as the years progress is far
more than made up by the greater use of the fruit in local wineries and
grape juice factories.
According to figures gathered in the preparation of this work about 90
per ct. of the grape acreage of the region is set to Concord followed by
3 per ct. of Niagara, 2 per ct. of Worden and 1 per ct. each for Moore
Early and Catawba with the remaining 3 per ct. made up of a dozen or
more sorts among which Delaware leads.
The shipping season in this district begins early in September and lasts
well into November though late varieties, as Catawba, and small lots of
Concord are held some weeks longer. Improved storage facilities are
yearly lengthening the season.
Several systems of pruning and training are in vogue in the district but
the majority of the vineyards are pruned and trained in a system
peculiar to Chautauqua County. The posts are from six to eight feet in
height, one to each three vines; two wires complete the trellis. The
lower wire is from 28 to 32 inches from the ground and the second from
22 to 36 inches above the first, the distance being changed as the vine
comes to maturity. The grapes are trained according to the upright
system and the vines are renewed to short horizontal arms and but few
canes are taken out each year; the trunk reaches only to the lower wire.
The arms are loosely tied to the lower wire and the canes and bearing
shoots to the wire above. Cultivation varies greatly but the best
growers practice close cultivation and make use of fertilizers; the
cover crop is growing in favor. Spraying is not very general as the
region has been remarkably free from pests. The chief insects now
encountered are the grape-vine fidia,[101] the flea-beetle,[102] the
grape leaf-hopper[103] and the grape berry moth.[104] The several fungal
diseases found in this region are, about in order of importance,
black-rot, downy mildew, or "brown-rot," powdery mildew, and
anthracnose, or "bird's-eye rot."
THE CENTRAL LAKES DISTRICT
Several important areas of vineyards are grouped about the central lakes
in western New York. While there are at least three distinct localities
in this district, namely, the areas about the three lakes, Keuka,
Canandaigua, and Seneca, yet the soils, climate, varieties and methods
of caring for vineyards and product are so nearly alike that all may be
treated as one district. The vineyards are in five counties, Ontario,
Yates, Schuyler, Steuben and Seneca. The Keuka area, in Yates and
Steuben Counties, is by far the largest; and the region is often called
the Keuka grape district. Vineyards surround Keuka Lake and all but the
northern end of Canandaigua Lake, but only on the banks of the southern
half of Seneca Lake are grapes grown. The somewhat extensive vineyards
about Naples, south of Canandaigua Lake; Bath, south of Keuka Lake; and
of Romulus between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes, belong in the Central Lakes
district.
The geology of the Central or Finger Lakes has been studied by many
workers and the geological history of these remarkable bodies of water
is now well known.[105] It is very generally agreed that these lakes
fill, in part, preglacial valleys and that the valleys were transformed
into lakes by glacial action. The basins of the lakes may have been and
probably were deepened by the erosive action of glaciers but it is
fairly certain that there were pre-existing valleys which were dammed by
glacial deposit.
The topography is more or less rough and broken. The steep hillsides of
the lakes were formed not only by erosion but by the tilting of the
land. Beside these hillsides of the lakes to give character to the
topography of the region, there are ranges of hills and the remains of
some moraines, so that in general the land is very uneven. This is
especially true of the parts of it devoted to grape-growing though in
some grape sections there are many stretches of smooth and regular
vineyards.
The soils of this great region vary much, as is always the case when
land is made by glacial erosion and deposit of glacial drifts. On a
single farm the soil may be thick and fertile in one part and thin and
poor in another; it may consist largely of clay in one part and of sand
and gravel in others. The grape soils in the Central Lakes region are,
in particular, of miscellaneous types, embracing, in one place or
another, nearly all of the soils in the Dunkirk series described in the
discussion of the Chautauqua district. Probably the Dunkirk clay loam,
often very shaly and stony, is the most common of the several soils of
the region. There are also considerable areas of a shaly soil which
possibly do not belong to the Dunkirk types, not having been influenced
by water action as are true Dunkirk soils. On the slopes and hillsides
the land is sometimes rough and stony with but a thin covering of soil
and with out-croppings of bed rock. The influence of the various soils
on the grape has not been studied as in the Chautauqua district but, as
noted, the soils in the two districts are in many cases similar so that
the discussion of the influence of the several types given for the
Chautauqua district will apply in large part to the Central Lakes
district.
The Central Lakes have a very perceptible influence on the climate of
the region. The lakes are deep and conserve warmth. The water of Seneca
Lake is so deep, and consequently warm, that it has been known to freeze
over only a few times in the past hundred years. The winter climate in
this region is much less severe than in adjacent territories. Not only
does the water modify the severity of the winter climate but the
enclosing highlands materially assist in keeping in the warmth of the
valleys. Since the lakes run, generally speaking, north and south, the
winds are deflected to these directions very largely. In the summer,
both days and nights are cooler and the climate more equable near the
lakes. These modifications of climate are all favorable to
grape-growing.
The first grapes grown in this district, so far as records show, were
set by the Rev. William Bostwick at Hammondsport in 1830. The varieties
were Isabella and Catawba and these he succeeded in raising to
perfection. From this time onward scattering vines were planted in
gardens about the three lakes. About 1836 Mr. J. W. Prentiss, originator
of the Prentiss grape, planted a small vineyard at Pulteney from which
considerable fruit was sent to market from time to time and the vineyard
was constantly enlarged. In 1853 a commercial vineyard was set out by
Andrew Reisinger, a German vine-dresser, consisting of two acres of
Isabella and Catawba at Harmonyville in the town of Pulteney. Reisinger
trained, pruned and tilled his vines, operations unheard of before in
the district, and was rewarded with crops and profits which stimulated
grape culture in his and nearby neighborhoods.
In 1855 the Hon. Jacob Larrowe and Mr. Orlando Shephard planted small
vineyards of Isabella and Catawba in Pleasant Valley near Hammondsport
and were so successful that in 1858 their vineyards were greatly
increased and others in the valley embarked in the business of
vine-culture. Viticulture was now fairly started and the industry grew
apace from 1858 onward. In 1860 two hundred acres of grapes were set in
Pleasant Valley alone and elsewhere on Keuka Lake large plantings were
made. Grapes brought from fifteen to thirty cents per pound and a
bearing vineyard at this time was as good as a gold mine.
Plantings were begun in the Yates County portion of the Keuka district
in 1855 when Mr. W. W. Shirland set a small vineyard of Isabella in
Benton township.
There seem to be no records as to the first plantings about Seneca and
Canandaigua Lakes but all available information indicates that plantings
about these two lakes came in the spreading of the industry from Keuka
Lake. E. A. McKay of Naples seems to have had a vineyard of some extent
as early as 1848 from which he sold fruit. There must have been
vineyards of considerable size about Avon in Livingston County in the
early fifties; for Larrowe, Shephard and others obtained cuttings at
this place in 1855 for their vineyards in Pleasant Valley. Who owned
these Avon vineyards, and what their extent was, does not appear.
The first commercial shipment of any considerable amount beyond the
towns nearby was made in 1854 when Mr. J. W. Prentiss shipped a ton of
Isabella packed in tubs to New York City. The tubs were made by cutting
apple barrels in half and were packed half full when a thin board
partition was put in after which the tub was filled and covered. The
consignment reached the city in fair condition and brought fifteen cents
per pound but a second ton shipped in the same way "broke" the market.
John Mead of the town of Benton introduced the Concord in this region in
1861 and the same year Henry Rose of Penn Yan set the first Delaware to
be planted commercially in the district. The Concord soon took the place
of the Isabella but could not displace the Catawba as it did in the
Chautauqua district. The Delaware grew in favor and rapidly assumed
third place in the list of varieties about the three lakes, a position
which it still maintains, though it is closely followed by the Niagara.
By 1860 grape-growing had become so general that the need of further
outlets for the fruit was felt and the Pleasant Valley Wine Company was
formed for the manufacture of wine and brandy. For several years
following, this company used about one-third of the output of Pleasant
Valley, helping very materially to steady the market for the whole
district. A few years later another large company, the Urbana Wine
Company, was formed; and when still later it was discovered that the
champagne made about Keuka Lake was superior to that made in any other
part of America and that, with experience in making, it rivalled the
champagne in France, wine-making became an important adjunct to
grape-growing in this district. Now there are about twenty-five
companies making wine and champagne on or near the shores of the three
lakes, the industry having its center on Keuka Lake. Wine-making is
still in its infancy and because of the demand it creates for grapes,
and the high prices paid by the wineries, will continue to exert a most
favorable influence on the viticulture of the district. There is but
little unfermented grape juice made about the Central Lakes.
A valuable asset of this district is its long range of season. Grapes
ripen from one to two weeks earlier about these lakes than they do in
the Chautauqua belt. Thus the Concords grown here are well out of the
way of those grown in the Chautauqua district. The Catawba, which ripens
late and is a "good keeper", can be kept in fine condition until
midwinter or later. The range of season in this district, then, is from
the first part of September until February or even March.
Though there have been grape-growers' unions for marketing the fruit of
this district at various times, most of it now goes through the hands of
individual buyers. An exception is the product of the large vineyards of
Niagaras in Seneca County, the fruit of which is marketed with that of
the product of other Niagara vineyards of the Niagara district of
western New York through a union of growers.
The grapes in this district are variously trained but the high renewal
system is used chiefly. In this system the head of the trunk is from
twenty to thirty inches from the ground. Usually the trellis has three
wires, the lowest about twenty inches from the ground and the others at
distances of eighteen inches apart. New canes are brought out from
renewal stubs and once in two or three years an attempt is made to bring
them directly from the head of the main trunk. This system is
particularly well adapted to the Catawba and Delaware so generally grown
in the lake region. Thorough cultivation is practiced and the fall cover
crop of oats, barley or clover is coming into favor.
It is difficult to ascertain the acreage in this district. Taking the
figures of the census of 1900 and those of a canvass made by this
Station in the winter of 1906-7 the acreage in the several counties is
about as follows: Yates, 7940; Steuben, 5570; Ontario, 2630; Schuyler,
1014; Seneca, 1540; total 18,694. These figures are slightly larger than
the estimates of grape-growers and buyers but chiefly so because they
take in scattered plantations throughout the several counties. Thus in
all of these counties there are a surprisingly large number of Niagara
vineyards in out-of-the-way places, set during the Niagara boom of the
eighties. To this Central Lakes district might also be added 500 acres
of commercial vineyards in Livingston County; 250 in Cayuga and 250 in
Tompkins Counties. The total valuation of the crop in this district in
1900 was $943,964.
Insects are not as troublesome in the Central Lakes district as in the
Chautauqua district. The grape-vine fidia, or root-worm, one of the
worst of the insect pests of the grape, is not yet destructive in this
region. The grape leaf-hopper and the grape-vine flea-beetle are
possibly the worst of the insects infesting the grapes about these
lakes.
But fungi are more troublesome than in the Chautauqua district; probably
because the climatic conditions are more favorable to the development of
these pests about these smaller lakes than near Lake Erie. The five most
troublesome diseases, named about in order of importance are
black-rot,[106] downy mildew,[107] or "brown-rot", powdery mildew,[108]
anthracnose,[109] or "bird's-eye rot" and chlorosis,[110] or
"yellow-leaf". Vineyards are very generally sprayed in this district and
usually with satisfactory results. Grape-growers have learned that
certain varieties are much more susceptible to some of the diseases than
others and plant accordingly.
HUDSON RIVER DISTRICT.
The region along the Hudson River forms the third largest grape district
in New York. According to the census of 1890 there were 13,000 acres of
grapes in this district but in 1900 the returns gave less than half that
acreage. The great falling off was due to the taking out of a
considerable number of old vineyards which had been planted with too
many varieties, or with worthless varieties, or in some other respect
were poorly set plantations. It is doubtful whether the acreage in 1907
is greater than in 1900 but the industry is in a more healthful and
prosperous condition now than then.
An estimate of the present acreage, and its distribution, made in the
preparation of this work, gives the standing of the district as follows
by counties: Columbia, 865 acres; Dutchess, 448 acres; Orange, 865
acres; Ulster, 4021 acres; total, 6199 acres. Beside the above there
are, of course, some scattering vineyards. There are only two or three
wine-cellars in the district and probably 95 per ct. of the product of
the vineyards is sold for table grapes or to those who make wine in
small quantities.
The grape lands of the Hudson River Valley are found very largely in the
geological division known as the Taconic Province.[111] This province is
a broad valley which extends from Pennsylvania across New Jersey, taking
in Orange and parts of Ulster and Dutchess and Columbia Counties, then
passing out of the State. The rocks in this geological division are
shales, slates, schists, and limestones; and the soil is derived from
these rocks. The grape lands, for most part, are those in which there is
much shale or slate and in more or less coarse fragments, the finer
particles being clay or gravelly loams. The district is more or less
hilly, some of the vineyards being in valleys of a few acres extent,
others in broad, gently undulating plains and still others on
comparatively steep hillsides.
The climate of the Hudson Valley changes rapidly as one goes up the
River because of the diversity of its physical features and the wide
variety of atmospheric influences to which it is subject. In the part of
the Valley in which grapes are grown the summer temperature is high
owing to the position between ranges of mountains and to the southerly
winds which prevail at this season. In the winter the winds are
northerly and the temperature is often low making the culture of tender
grapes hazardous. The influence of the river, really a broad estuary in
the grape regions, at all seasons is most favorable for fruit-growing.
The lowlands of the Hudson Valley receive a somewhat small amount of
rainfall as compared with the rest of New York because when moisture is
being carried inland from the Atlantic it is largely precipitated by the
mountains and highlands of New England. This is favorable to
grape-growing. Another desirable feature of the rainfall of this Valley
is that the maximum summer downfall is in July whereas in many parts of
the State it is in September or October. This relatively light rainfall
in the maturing months is more marked in this than in any other of the
grape districts of the State.
The recorded history of commercial viticulture dates back to 1827 when
Mr. Robert Underhill and his two sons, R. T. and W. A. Underhill,
planted a vineyard of Catawba and Isabella at Croton Point which
eventually covered seventy-five acres. For some years this vineyard
practically supplied the large markets of the region with grapes. In
1829, Rufus Barrett of New Paltz, began shipping Isabella grapes in
small quantities to the New York market. Barrett lived in a settlement
of French Huguenots, who after having experimented more or less with
European sorts, early in the nineteenth century began planting native
varieties. It is probable that Barrett obtained his inspiration for
planting and knowledge of vine-growing from these Frenchmen.
In 1837 a French vintner, John Jacques, set out a vineyard for
wine-making at Washingtonville, Orange County. The varieties set were
Catawba and Isabella, purchased from Prince of Long Island. Some of
these vines are still living, vigorous and thrifty at three score years
and ten. The original plantation consisted of but a half acre but in
1838 this was increased to ten acres. This is probably the oldest
vineyard of native grapes in New York. The third year from the planting
of this vineyard wine was made, and has been made at Washingtonville
ever since, so that this community may claim the oldest winery as well
as the oldest vineyard in the State.[112]
William T. Cornell planted a vineyard of Isabellas near Clintonville,
Ulster County, in the year 1845. Mrs. Cornell and Mrs. William A.
Underhill were sisters, so that Cornell's vines came from Croton Point.
A. J. Caywood, of Marlboro, was a brother-in-law of Mr. Cornell. Thus
the inspiration of this noted viticulturist to plant grapes, and to
originate new sorts, may be traced directly back to the Frenchman,
Parmentier, who, as we have seen, furnished the Underhills with their
vines and gave them instructions for their care. The Catawba and
Isabella were grown almost entirely until the introduction of the
Delaware and Concord, after which the first named sorts dropped out
entirely, being subject to mildew and ripening late in the season.
The Valley of the Hudson has more reason to be called the birthplace of
American viticulture than any other of the grape-growing districts of
the country. The grape and wine industries, as we have seen, were early
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