46 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



and his cultural directions are taken almost wholly, such as they are, from 

 European books. In the last four pages of the treatise he describes twenty- 

 two varieties of grapes of which perhaps a dozen are native sorts. In this 

 edition the Catawba is described as the Tokay but in a second edition, 

 published in 1828, the name is changed from Tokay to Catawba. Adlum 

 was one of the first to call attention to the Catawba and was at the time 

 its chief distributor. He advocated in his book, and in the papers of the 

 time, the establishment of an experimental farm' upon which could be 

 grown " cuttings of the different species of the native Vine to be found 

 in the United States, to ascertain their growth, soil, and produce, and to 

 exhibit to the Nation, a new source of wealth, which has been too long 

 neglected." 



Adlum did not write from theory alone for he was the owner and cul- 

 tivator of vineyards near Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, where 

 he grew both native and foreign grapes. The latter he finally discarded 

 with the statement that the way to success in America "is to drop most 

 kinds of foreign vines at once (except a few for the table) and seek for the 

 best kinds of our largest native Grapes ". The best information from 

 Adlum's pen regarding native grapes and their culture is to be found in the 

 American Farmer, published in Baltimore. He wrote mainly during the 

 years 1824 to 1830. He was neither a clear nor an accurate writer and his 

 imagination and enthusiasm had full sway at all times; yet. notwithstanding 

 these faults, he must be counted as one of the geniuses of his day, as devoted 

 to the welfare of the country, as having almost a prophetic vision, and as 

 actuated by the best of motives. His struggle for a national experimental 

 vineyard, the work of his pen, his dissemination of the Catawba and other 

 grapes, and his vineyard experiments, give Adlum a high place among the 

 improvers of American grapes. 



John James Dufour gives the next glimpse of the beginnings of Ameri- 

 can viticulture in his Vine Dresser's Guide published in Cincinnati in 1826. 

 It is but a glimpse, however, for Dufour was a foreigner, and. as we have 

 seen, came to America to grow the Old World grape. His efforts at grape- 

 growing furnished the climax to the two centuries of failures in growing 



' Adlum, John. Cultivation of tlic Vine. Preface. 1823. 



