44 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



It had been declared in Dufour's time that the 

 Cape grape was really an offshoot of the wild grape 

 of the Atlantic slope, but Dufour was so strongly 

 prejudiced against the native grapes that he would 

 never admit such an origin, although he was ready 

 to admit the good qualities of the variety. "The Cape 

 grape," he says, "has been slandered and cryed down 

 to a mere wild grape. It is true, that it is a very 

 coarse grape, unfit for table use, for those who have 

 eaten the best sort in Europe, or who can get a 

 better one. It has a very thick skin and pulp, but 

 the juice is very sweet when perfectly ripe and has 

 the taste of the strawberry, which gives a fine per- 

 fume to the wine; such as made the President Jeffer- 

 son say, that there was no other such tasted wine 

 within his knowledge in the world." This "fine per- 

 fume," which in Dufour's judgment disproved any 

 plebeian American origin, is the very "foxiness" which 

 all modern grape -growers associate with the native 

 grapes, and which they are seeking to breed out of 

 them. 



But while Dufour was determined to "try to save 

 the character of our Cape grapes from being made 

 merely wild grapes," he was nevertheless convinced 

 that it was "a very precious plant to the United 

 States." Dufour had the privilege of appearing 

 before Mr. Legaux's association in Philadelphia in 

 1806, and of explaining to the "very numerous" mem- 

 bers the partial success of the grape projects in the 

 West, although it was from the Legaux vineyard itself 

 that the westerners had obtained their plants. "I briefly 

 answered," he says, "that all the mystery of our suc- 

 cess consisted in nursing only the vines that were 



