GRAPES. 65 



In connection with the outline of this fruit, Mr. Barry sajs : " The grape 

 itself, as well as its history, is worthy of more attention. The bunch is small, 

 very compact, sometimes shouldered. Berries small, round; skin, thin, of a 

 coppery rose color; pulp, very little; flavor, sweet, but sprightly and pleasant." 



It had, however, been brought to the notice of the Ohio Pomological Society 

 by Mr. Thomson, in the autumn of 1851, and also noticed in an article pub- 

 lished in the Ohio Cultivator in 1852. 



From the best information before the public the following seems to be an 

 epitome of the history : 



Mr. Paul H. Provost, of Swiss descent, was compelled to emigrate to this 

 country to escape political proscription, and settled at French town, Hunterdon 

 County, ]N"ew Jersey. It is claimed that he brought with him, or subsequently 

 imported a collection of European grapes, which were planted in his garden at 

 that place ; and it is supposed that this was one of that collection, and hence 

 the conclusion that it is a foreign variety. It is understood that such 

 importation occurred probably more than half a century ago, from the fact 

 that when this grape began to attract attention these vines had been so long 

 dead that, with the exception of this one, they had been forgotten. Mr. A. G. 

 M. -Provost, a grandson of the former, (long since deceased) thinks his grand- 

 father obtained this from Hare Powell, of Philadelphia, and states that they 

 called it the Powell grape. A Mr. Ruff obtained this grape from Mr. Provost 

 at a very early date, and others who had it from him called it, locally, the Ruff 

 grape. Others whose vines are traceable to the original stock, knew it as the 

 French grape. It is also claimed that there are persons yet living in Bucks 

 County, Penn., who were acquainted with this grape as early as 1823 ; which 

 is accounted for by the alleged fact that a Mr. Bergstrasser, of New Jersey, dis- 

 seminated it somewhat extensively in the northern part of Bucks County, he 

 having obtained his vines from Mr. Provost through a Mr. Canoa, also of New 

 Jersey, he giving the name French Wine grape, because Mr. Provost was called 

 a Frenchman. 



In the year 1841 Mr. Richard Warford, living some six miles from Delaware, 

 Ohio, brought from Frenchtown, N. J., for his neighbor, Benjamin Heath, 

 two vines of this variety, one of which Mr. Warford received for his trouble, 

 and the other was planted by Mr. Heath ; and from these two vines have 

 sprung all the genuine Delawares that have been disseminated from that 

 locality. These gentlemen received it under the name of Italian Wine grape, 

 according to the statement of a Mr. Ott, writing to the Gardener's Monthly. 

 Fruit from these vines was off'^red for sale in the streets of Delaware, and thus 

 attracted the attention of Mr. Thompson, through whose appreciation and that 

 of George W. Campbell, also of that place, it was rescued from its protracted 

 obscurity and sent forth to become, what it has proved in an important sense 

 to be, the educator of the public taste to a higher appreciation of the possi- 

 bilities to which in the process of the improvement of this fruit we may reason- 

 ably aspire. 



For an age prior to the introduction of the improved native varieties of the 

 grape, our pomologists, discouraged apparently by the fixedness of character 

 of our natives, had directed their energies to the introduction and acclimation 

 of the European grape {vii>s vinifera). Beyond doubt millions of dollars in 

 money and labor had been wasted in the hopeless effort, and discouraged at 

 the utter failure in this direction, we were just beginning to see the dawning 

 light of improvement shed upon us by the introduction of such varieties as 

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