10 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



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 1 83 1 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 cut- 

 tings of French and Spanish vines; and several experimental vineyards 

 were set out in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, but all efforts to estab- 

 lish 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.' " 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 



' Dankers, Jasper, and Sluyter, Peter. Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80: 130. 



