THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. IS 



At the time of Boiling's death he was preparing to send to press a 

 book on grape-growing entitled ^4 Sketch of Vine Culture. The book was 

 never printed but the manuscript was copied several times and parts of it 

 were printed contemporaneously in the Virginia Gazette, and subsequently 

 in the Boiling Memoirs and in the American Farmer ? Boiling's book 

 was largely a compilation from European sources but it contained the 

 experiences and observations of the atithor in cultivating European 

 grapes in America and though not printed, was sufficiently distributed 

 through manuscript copies and through the papers and books mentioned 

 above, to give its author the honor of being the first American writer on 

 grapes. 



In an essay on the cultivation of the vine published in the first volume 

 of the Transactions of the American Pliilosopliical Society- printed in Phila- 

 delphia in 1 771, a Mr. Edward Antill of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, gives 

 explicit directions for grape-growing and wine-making.' Antill describes only 

 foreign varieties and leads the reader to infer, though he does not say so, 

 that he has grown many varieties of these grapes successfully. But neither 

 his essay, nor his efforts at grape-growing, seemed to have stimulated a 

 grape industry worthy of note. This essay of Antill's is the second American 

 treatise on the cultivation of the grape and was for many years the chief 

 authority on grape-growing in America. It is greatly to be regretted that 

 a treatise which was to be quoted for fifty years could not have been more 

 meritorious. The eighty quarto pages written by Antill give little real or 

 trustworthy information. It is a rambling discussion of European grapes, 

 wine-making, the temperance cjuestion, patriotism, " wellfare of country," 

 and " good of mankind ". He quotes Columella, gives methods of curing 

 grapes for raisins, and winds up with a discussion of figs. Yet a hundred 

 years ago it was the chief work on grape-growing. 



A Frenchman, Peter Legaux, founded a company in 1793 for the cul- 

 tivation of grapes at Spring Mill near Philadelphia. In 1800 he published 



^American Farmer, Baltimore, 10:387. 1828-29. ■^^•' 11:172- 1829-30. 



' Vol. I ;i 17-198. 1769-71. 



' All that is known of the life of Edward Antill is found in Johnson's Rural Economy where he is 

 spoken of as " Mr. Antill, late of Middlesex County, New-Jersey, a gentleman who cultivated the 

 grape with sedulous attention." Johnson's Rural Economy: 164. 1806. 



