THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 39 



others purple, blue and black, but all much alike in flavor; and some long, 

 some round. 



"A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the 

 swamps and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and in small 

 bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes as big as the English buUace, 

 and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the smell of a fox, from whence 

 they are called fo.x grapes. Both these sorts make admirable tarts, being 

 of a fleshly substance, and perhaps, if rightly managed, might make good 

 raisins. 



"There are two species more, that are common to the whole country, 

 some of which are black, and some blue on the outside, and some white. 

 Thev grow upon vast, large vines, and l)ear very plentifully. The nice 

 observer might, perhaps, distinguish them into several kinds, because they 

 differ in color, size and relish; but I shall divide them only into two, viz: 

 the early, and the late ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, 

 sweeter, and better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others 

 blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks, or a month 

 before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from the latter end of 

 August, to the latter end of October. The late ripe common grapes are 

 less than any other, neither are they so pleasant to the taste. They hang 

 commonly to the latter end of November, or till Christmas ; all that I have 

 seen of these are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees 

 at the Monacan Town made a sort of claret, though they were gathered 

 oft" of the wild vines in the woods. I was told by a very good judge who 

 tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full-bodied wine. From which 

 we may conclude, that if the wine was but tolerably good, when made of 

 the wild grape, which is shaded by the woods from the sun, it would be 

 much better, if produced of the same grape cultivated in a regtilar vineyard." 



Beverly could write with some authority on grapes for he was at that 

 time much interested in the general question of grape-growing. Besides 

 he was of an inquiring mind and seems to have been an untiring experi- 

 menter with the agricultural plants of his own and other lands. Charles 

 Campbell in his introduction to the reprint of Beverly's Virginia in 1S55, 

 gives the following account of a vineyard planted by the historian: "John 

 Fontaine, son of a Huguenot refugee, having come over from England to 



