THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. I3 



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.' 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 stimu- 

 lated 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 vinijera. 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 govern- 

 ment 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 vine- 

 yards 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 



' Bellomont records that a company of French immigrants had made good wine in Rhode Island 

 toward the close of the 1 7th century but they were driven out of the Colony by the English and the 

 industry ceased. N. Y. Col. Doc, 4:787. 



