6 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



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 phyl- 

 loxera, 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 liave 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.' His 

 letter seems to have been convincing, for it is on record that the Company 

 in 16 19 sent a number of French vine-dressers and a collection of the best 



' Delaware wrote as follows: " In every boske and hedge, and not farr from our pallisade gates 

 we have thousands of goodly vines running along and leaving to every tree, which yealds a plentiful 

 grape in their kinde. Let me appeale, ':hen, to knowledge if these naturall vines were planted, dressed 

 and ordered by skilfull vinearoons, whether we might not make a perfect grape and fruitfuU vintage 

 in short time?" Delaware's Relation. Brown's Genesis of the United States. 1611. 



