THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. II 



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 Bankers and Sluyter the people of 

 New Netherland addressed a remonstrance to the home government regard- 

 ing certain abuses in the colony. This document ' is headed with a chapter 

 on the productions of New Netherland in which the wild grapes are men- 

 tioned 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 con- 

 veniently 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." 



NicoUs, the first English governor of New York, greatly desired to 

 grow the vine for wine-making. In 1664 he granted Paul Richards a 

 monopolv 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.- Richards lived in the 



^Documents Relating to the Colonial History of tlie State of New York, Holland Documents, 

 1603-1656. Vol. I;277. 



^ The grant of the bounty is recorded in Volume II, Deeds of New York, page 87, on file in the 

 ofHce of the Secretary of State at Albany. It runs as follows: — 



" Whereas Paul Richards an inhabitant of this Citty of New York hath made knowne to mee 

 his intent to plant vines at a certaine Plantation that hee hath upon Long Island, called the little 

 fRefe, which if it succeed, may redound very much to the future benefitt and advantage of the inhabit- 

 ants within this Government; and in regard, it will require much labour and a considerable charge 



