16 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



"the wine which was to supply all the plantations, 

 and to cultivate which they had employed a vigneron 

 from Portugal, and planted in their gardens the 

 choicest cuttings from Madeira, resulted in only a 

 few gallons, and was then abandoned." 



One of the most enterprising and intelligent early 

 cultivators of the grape in this region was Nicholas 

 Herbemont, of Columbia, South Carolina, whose name 

 is now given to one of the best wine grapes of the 

 South. As late as January, 1828, he opens a series of 

 articles in the Southern Agriculturist, upon the cul- 

 tivation of the grape for wine, but among the varie- 

 ties which he chooses are derivatives of American spe- 

 cies, like Herbemont, Le Noir, Eland's Madeira, Isa- 

 bella, and the like. 



It is said that Paul Richards, of the city of New 

 York, entered upon the cultivation of the wine grape 

 on a large scale some two hundred and fifty years 

 ago, and in 1664, Nicolls, the first English governor 

 of New York, granted Richards the privilege of mak- 

 ing and selling wine free of impost, and ordered that 

 all persons setting vines within the next thirty years 

 should pay Richards a tax of five shillings for every 

 acre planted. William Penn planted a vineyard near 

 Philadelphia in 1683, the year following his coming 

 to America. Andrew Dore made an attempt near by 

 two years later. Many other attempts to grow the 

 European grape were made in various parts of the 

 country, but none seem to have been successful. 



Yet the interest in vine -growing persisted. In 

 1769, Edward Antill, of Monmouth, New Jersey, wrote 

 the first American treatise upon the vine. It was 

 published in the Transactions of the Philosophical 



