1893.] ESSAYS. 45 



when some fifty sturdy yeomeu met an untimely death at the hands of 

 the Indians. 



The story is told that these men were conveying their grain to mar- 

 ket. While passing this spot they were induced to stop and refresh 

 themselves with the native grapes that grew in abundance along this 

 brook. Leaving their teams and guns by the roadside, they soon for- 

 got all else, in their eagerness to secure the ripe fruit. While thus 

 engaged they were surprised by a party of Indians, and nearly all 

 were killed. But these native grapes were inferior to the' European 

 varieties, and our forefathers spent much time and money in introduc- 

 ing European varieties, especially in Pennsylvania and Virginia, but 

 with little success ; and, in fact, but little was done in grape culture 

 in this country until this century, when a wild grape was found on the 

 Catawba river by John Adlum, and it was called the Catawba; after 

 this appeared the Isabella, which for many years was our leading 

 grape. In 1852 Mr. Bull, of Concord, gave us the Concord grape, 

 and it can be truly said that the introduction of this grape was the 

 turning point in the grape industry of this country east of the Eock- 

 ies, for now that attention was called to the propagation of our native 

 vines it was taken up all along the line, and new grape followed new 

 grape in quick succession. Since the introduction of the Concord 

 there have been about 300 varieties of grapes named, and a great share 

 of them sent out east of the Rockies, and about one- third of these 

 have been pure Labruscas, until to-day the cultivation of the grape 

 claims a larger share of public interest than any other fruit. And we 

 cannot but think this is right, for we find in the grape a regulator and 

 stimulant possessed by no other fruit, and in many cases, when used 

 as a medicine, performing great cures. To convince one that they are 

 being consumed as an article of food more and more every year, they 

 need but to compare the sales iu their own town, say three years ago, 

 with those of to-day. And as the consumption has gradually in- 

 creased, the price has as gradually decreased. Twenty-five years ago 

 a prominent grape grower iu the West made the remark that the man 

 had yet to be born who will be able to purchase our best native grapes 

 for less than fifteen cents a pound. Well, that shows how little man 

 knows of the future. You and I were, at that time, pretty well along 

 on the road of life, and we saw the past fall grapes selling for one- 

 third of that price. That man is probably no more surprised at the 

 decline in the price of grapes, than he is in the enormous increase in 

 their production. And let us stop here for a moment and see what 

 this production is. In 1891 the industry represented a total value in 



