2 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



North America is a Natural Vineland 



The first record of America is also a record of 

 its grapes. Leif, son of Eric, the old Norse navi- 

 gator, touched our northeastern shores in about the 

 year 1000. "Farther south and westerly they went," 

 says Justin Winsor's narrative, "and going up a 

 river came into an expanse of water, where on the 

 shores they built huts to lodge in for the winter, 

 and sent out exploring parties. In one of these, 

 Tyrker, a native of a part of Europe where grapes 

 grew, found vines hung with their fruit, which in- 

 duced Leif to call the country Vineland." The Eng- 

 lish colonists found the coasts of what is now New 

 England to be profuse in grapes. In 1621, Edward 

 Winslow wrote that "here [in New England] are 

 grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong 

 also." In 1630, Francis Higginson said that "ex- 

 cellent Vines are here up and downe in the Woods. 

 Our Governour hath already planted a Vineyard with 

 great hope of encrease." Thomas Morton, in his 

 "New English Canaan," an account of New England 

 in 1632, wrote as follows: "Vines, of this kind of 

 trees, there are that beare grapes of three colours, 

 that is to say : white, black and red. The Country 

 is so apt to vines, that (but for the fire at the 

 spring of the yeare) the vines would so over spreade 

 the land, that one should not be able to passe for 

 them, the fruit is as bigg of some ; as a musket 

 bullet, and is excellent in taste." The Massachusetts 

 colonists made wine of the native grapes during 

 their first summer, but Edward Everett Hale re- 

 marks that "the appetite for such wine does not seem 



