22 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



tries, to whom both grapes and apples have been re- 

 fused: and if this my humble performance, should 

 contribute to bring such blessings in the country, I 

 could rejoice to have quitted my first home to come 

 here." Dufour recites the reasons for his coming to 

 America in his "Vine Dresser's Guide," which was 

 published in 1826: "When I took the resolution to 

 come to America, to try the cultivation of the grape 

 I was but fourteen; and I came to this determination 

 by reading the papers, which were full of the Ameri- 

 can Revolutionary War, and contained many letters 

 from the officers of the French army aiding the Re- 

 publicans, which complained of the scarcity of the 

 wine among them, in the midst of the greatest abun- 

 dance of everything else; and by inspection of the 

 maps, I saw that America was in the parallel of the 

 best wine countries in the world like Spain, South of 

 France, Italy and Greece ; I then made the culture of 

 the grape, of its natural history, and of all that was 

 connected with it, my most serious study, to be the 

 better able to succeed here. It is that resolution 

 which made me a vine dresser, although some may 

 think I am not fit for it, being maimed in my left 

 arm. It was it, which made me lose several chances 

 of getting rich, in my journeying through America, 

 because it had so completely absorbed all my other 

 thoughts; and it was also that resolution, which made 

 me accept a proposal of an association for the culture 

 of the grape in Kentucky." 



The Dufour family has particular interest to us, 

 for the outcome of this experiment has had a most 

 important bearing upon American viticulture. John 

 James Dufour, the father of the subject of our sketch, 



