DUFOUR'S RETROSPECT 45 



prosperous, no matter how good or how bad their 

 fruit was; for I was fully of the opinion, that no 

 other existing this side of the Atlantic, would ever 

 remunerate for the trouble of attendance; that the 

 Cape grape was the only one reared by the Swiss 

 settlers; that it was a hardy and thrifty plant, giving 

 regular if not large crops of grapes, equal to a 

 majority of the French vineyards; according to Chap- 

 tal's account making a good wine inferior but to a 

 minority of the European wines, and that it rewarded 

 its. cultivator if industrious, as well as any other 

 American produce." It was of this variety that 

 Dufour made what he called his "subsequent and 

 prosperous plantation" on the Ohio, and it is presum- 

 ably the one with which the religious community of 

 the Harmonists, on the lower Wabash, in Indiana, 

 also made a successful venture in grape -growing. 



Having had this successful experience upon the 

 Ohio, Dufour indulges in a retrospect of what might 

 have been the success of the Kentucky vineyard, if 

 his associates had not abandoned the enterprise when 

 he was in Europe: "Now let us see the difference, 

 if we had punctually followed the plan, and began 

 first by the collection of $8,000, and the purchase 

 of 5 families of negroes, for five thousand dollars, we 

 could then have had from 15 to 20 head, big and 

 small, I could certainly have procured by our joint 

 labor, enough to support us all, after the second year, 

 besides planting as many vines as we have done; 

 and although the first planting had failed, we would 

 surely, in 1809 or 1810, have at least 20 acres of 

 bearing vines of the Cape grapes, which, at the 

 average of 180 gallons per acre, as that is the pro- 



