THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 53 



vineyards at Belleville, Illinois; and wine was being made from the Scupper- 

 nong grape in North and South Carolina. The inference from Buchanan is 

 that the above plantations were for the production of wine ; for he specifies 

 that a few vineyards were in cultivation about New York, Philadelphia and 

 Burlington, New Jersey, "but more with a view to supply the market with 

 grapes, than to make wine." 



The last statement is significant for it indicates a change in the grape 

 industry which really gave life to the viticulture of eastern America. 

 Until about 1S50, grapes were considered valuable and were cultivated only 

 for wine-making. Previous to this time the literature on the grape was 

 concerned more with wine-making than with cultivation, varieties or any 

 other phase of the industry. The American grapes, with few exceptions, 

 do not make good wines; there were few men in the country until within 

 recent years who understood wine-making; and the American people do not 

 take kindly to wines. It was not, therefore, possible to establish viticulture 

 as an indastry of any magnitude in eastern America when grapes were used 

 for \v'ine alone. It was onlv when the demand for table grapes was created 

 and when transportation and market facilities permitted the supplv of the 

 demand that the industry took form and substance. It is a significant fact 

 that in those regions in the eastern United States in which grape-growing 

 has been founded and which are chiefly dependent on wine-making, the 

 industry has not prospered or has flourished but temporarily. 



We have had Rafinesque's survey of the grape industry of the country 

 in 1830 and Buchanan's in 1850. The next record, and a far more complete 

 one than either of the above, is found in a consular report made by E. M. 

 Erskine, Secretary of the British Legation at Washington, to the British 

 government in 1859. Mr. Erskine reported the acreage as follows:' " The 

 banks of the River Ohio are studded with vineyards, between 1.500 and 

 2,000 acres being planted in the immediate vicinity of Cincinnati, with 

 every prospect of a vast increase. At Cleveland, Ohio, on the southern 

 shore of Lake Erie, there are 100 acres under vine culture; at Hermann, on 

 the Missouri, 80 miles west of St. Louis, 150 or 200 acres are cultivated 

 almost entirely by Germans; at Booneville, higher up the same river; at 



* British Parliamentary Papers (Library of Congress), Vol. 30. 1859. 



