THE KENTUCKY SOCIETY 25 



But the most interesting vineyard which this inde- 

 fatigable explorer found was that at Spring Mill, on 

 the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. This was planted by 

 the Frenchman, Peter Legaux whom M'Mahon calls 

 "a gentleman of worth and science" but about the 

 close of the century it was taken up by "a wealthy 

 Society formed by subscription," in Philadelphia, and 

 incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania "for 

 the promotion of the culture of the vine." The sec- 

 retary of this Society was the excellent Bernard 

 M'Mahon, author of the "American Gardener's Cal- 

 endar," and whom every botanist and nurseryman re- 

 calls in the Mahonia barberries. 



Of all the vines which Dufour saw, none suf- 

 ficed "to pay for one half of their attendance" save 

 the "vines planted in the gardens of New York and 

 Philadelphia, and about a dozen of plants in the 

 vineyard of Mr. Legaux." And from these few 

 plants of Legaux's, under Dufour's care, began the 

 most important experiment in American grape culture. 



Dufour was now ready to locate land and to estab- 

 lish the proposed grape colony. He chose a location 

 in the Great Bend of the Kentucky River, about 

 twenty -five miles from Lexington by the present pikes, 

 and thirteen' miles from the present village of Nicholas- 

 ville. "The Kentucky Vineyard Society" appears to 

 have been established under his inspiration. He says 

 that it was "an association for the culture of the grape 

 \n Kentucky, under the same principles of the one 

 established at Philadelphia, though not knowing, how- 

 ever, which of those societies had been the first." 

 This organization "may be with great propriety con- 

 sidered as the beginner, the true introducer of the 



