26 THE EVOLUTION OP OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



cultivation of grape vines into the United States ; 

 although it proved to be a ruinous affair, both to the 

 shareholders and their vine dresser nevertheless mil- 

 lions will accrue to the country at large, from the 

 school made there." Dufour mentions himself as one 

 of the "loosers in that undertaking;" and he says 

 that when he "first came to Lexington," he was solic- 

 ited to make "a trial on the cultivation of the grape," 

 but "was left with little courage by what I had seen 

 done." "They offered to help," and a scheme of 

 operation was completed. The planting at Spring 

 Mill, near Philadelphia, was made earlier, for Dufour 

 "saw that Vineyard in 1796, 1799, and 1806," but the 

 association which finally took it in charge seems to 

 have been formed in 1798 or 1799. The Kentucky 

 association must have been organized in 1798, for in 

 January, 1799, Dufour went to Philadelphia and pro- 

 cured, for the Kentucky place, 10,000 grape vines and 

 some fruit trees. These, including the transportation 

 to Pittsburg, cost $461. Spooner, however, states 

 in his grape book in 1846, that "in 1793, Peter Legaux, 

 a French gentleman, obtained of the legislature of 

 Pennsylvania the incorporation of a company for cul- 

 tivating the vine," and that "for one year only pros- 

 pects were favorable; but divisions and dissentions 

 arose, and the stockholders sold out in disgust, and 

 the vineyard went to ruin." But Dufour saw the 

 vineyard in 1806, and he bought vines there in 1799, 

 so that Spooner 's chronology is open to doubt. 



The Kentucky association was organized with $10,- 

 000 capital. There were 200 shares at $50 each, and 

 forty shares were given Dufour as "salary to conduct 

 the business, until it would become productive." The 



