SPREAD OF GRAPE -GROWING 67 



possible that his grape was really not the Isabella, 

 but a closely similar variety. 



Progressive horticulturists were now fully con- 

 vinced of the importance of the native grapes. At- 

 tempts to grow the European varieties in the open 

 air were still made here and there, but there were no 

 longer any sustained or concerted efforts to introduce 

 them, and everyone began to feel that the hope for 

 American grape-culture lies in the amelioration of the 

 native species. Various persons made definite attempts 

 to secure promising wild forms of grapes. Prince de- 

 scribed eighty -one native grapes in his "Treatise on 

 the Vine," in 1830. Even Johnson, in 1806, while 

 recommending chiefly the European grapes, says that 

 "the sorts of vines are too numerous to mention, even 

 if confined to the American alone;" but he evidently 

 had in mind the wild forms rather more than those 

 which had been brought into cultivation. As early as 

 1820 or 1821, Mr. Herbemont, of South Carolina, had 

 sent out a circular requesting cuttings of native grapes. 

 (See page 78.) Longworth made a similar request in 

 the Cincinnati Gazette in 1848 or 1849, and twenty - 

 four varieties were sent him in the spring of 1849. 

 From 1840 on, the annual crops of novel varieties 

 have afforded a continuous fund of inspiration to 

 those with grape-growing proclivities; but by far the 

 greater part of the novelties have fallen by the way, 

 and are now forgotten. No doubt, there have been 

 two thousand or three thousand varieties, more or less, 

 disseminated in the last fifty or sixty years, most of 

 which are offspring of our native species. 



About 1830, grapes were planted at Hammonds- 

 port, at the southern extremity of Keuka Lake, in 



