A LOOK BACKWARD ox TIIK GKAIM-: 1221 



yielding a different fruit and being a table grape rather than a 

 wine grape, although wine, is made from it. Thus it comes that 

 my grape books express the old history ; and in the last half cen- 

 tury, when grape growing in eastern North America has estab- 

 lished itself and needs no explanation or justification, the books 

 written about it have not been many. 



THE PASSING OF THE WINE GRAPE 



Let us remember, then, that the grape of history is pne thing 

 Vitis vinifera, the " wine-bearing " vitis or grape, and that it 

 was early introduced into this country, and that the grape of New 

 York is another thing. The .earliest settlers brought the -wine 

 grape; companies were formed to grow it. The colonial history 

 is replete with mention of it. My shelf of suggestive books led 

 me into this history a quarter of a century ago ; I wrote it nearly 

 twenty years ago in my " Sketch of the Evolution of our Xative 

 Fruits " ; and the field has since been further searched by Hedrick 

 for the admirable great work, " The Grapes of New York." It is 

 not necessary, therefore, to present any of the details here, but 

 only to explain in a general way how it came that the European 

 grape failed and perished in our eastern country and how a native 

 grape, offshoot of the vine of our woods, came to take its place 

 unbeknown even to those who propagated it. 



The very early plantings of the grape of the Old World were 

 many, and often extensive. As early as 1662, Lord Baltimore 

 planted 300 acres in Maryland. Colonies of vine-dressers specially 

 brought from Europe for the purpose were established for the 

 furtherance of vine culture. But although wine was made and 

 even sent to Europe, everywhere a fatal and mysterious sickness 

 finally overtook the vines, and they perished. This sickness was 

 thought to be due to cold, to soil, to wrong exposure, to atmos- 

 pheric causes, but still the hope persisted that somewhere the safe 

 and ideal location would be found. Always was the effort made 

 to find the right exposure and site, for somewhere nature must 

 have provided the delicate balance of conditions that would make 

 the vine to thrive. 



This reminds us of our recent notions that very special places 

 must be found if we are to grow Spitzenbergs and Newtown 



