38 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



the colony of New Switzerland was afterwards and is 

 at present called. He died June 6, 1850. 



In this new location, the vines and fruit trees were 

 planted on the bottom lands which slope gradually up 

 from the Ohio. The labor of clearing the land and 

 the haste for results were so great that the land was 

 not plowed previous to the setting of the vines. "The 

 Swissers on the borders of the Ohio," wrote John 

 James Dufour, "having the ground to clear from a 

 heavy forest of extraordinary big poplar [tulip -tree] 

 and beech trees, and depending only on their own 

 labor, did not prepare their ground according to the 

 aforesaid rules, but satisfied themselves, by digging a 

 hole for each vine the same as for any other tree, 

 about -twelve or fifteen inches in diameter, with the 

 same depth, and it being filled with the top earth, 

 they stuck the scion in the middle of it." "The first 

 vineyard planted on the borders of the Ohio, was dis- 

 tanced six feet by two and a half feet, it has been 

 worn out in sixteen years ; on the spot, there is now 

 [1826] young vines growing, since three years." The 

 first wine at Vevay was made in 1806 or 1807. The 

 vintage in 1808 was 800 gallons, and in 1809 about 

 1,200 gallons. 



One of the best cultivators in the little colony was 

 Jean Daniel Mererod (Fig. 7), whose wife was An- 

 toinette Dufour. It was probably Mererod who made 

 the first wine at the new settlement. His place may 

 still be seen (Fig. 8), with the old wine cellar and 

 the ponderous wine -press ; and a few rods in front 

 of it rolls the mighty torrent of the Ohio. At one 

 place a grape stock persists, which, although cut off 

 and abused year after year, still throws out its shoots 



