l6 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



an account of his venture.' A vineyard of European grapes was set out 

 and the prospects seemed favorable for the success of the undertaking. 

 But the grapes began to fail, dissensions arose among the stock-holders, 

 the vineyards were neglected and the company failed. Legaux speaks of 

 his experience in grape-growing as follows:- '' But if the native grapes of 

 America are not the most eligible for vineyards, others are now within the 

 reach of its inhabitants. Some years since I procured from France three 

 hundred plants from the three kinds of grapes in the highest estimation, 

 of which are made Burgundy, Champagne and Bordeaux wines. These 

 three hundred plants have in ten years produced 100,000 plants; which, 

 were the culture encouraged, would in ten years more, produce upwards 

 of thirty millions of plants; or enough to stock more than 8000 acres, at 

 3600 plants to the acre, set about three feet and a half apart. I have also 

 about 3000 plants raised from a single plant procured a few years since 

 from the Cape of Good Hope, of the kind which produces the excellent 

 Constantia wines. The gentlemen who at different times have done me the 

 honour to taste these wines can bear testimony to their good quality. 

 Although made in the hottest season, (about the middle of August) yet 

 they were perfectly preserved without the addition of a drop of brandy or 

 any other spirit. And in this will consist one excellency of the wines here 

 recommended to the notice of my fellow citizens ; that being made wholly of 



' Legaux's paper is found as a treatise on the cultivation of the vinj in The True .-l»mTiV:a>» of 

 March 24, 1800. The article contains about 2000 words, the main part of it being 'A Statement of 

 the E.xpense and Income of a Vineyard, Made on Four Acres of Land, situated in Pennsylvania, in 

 the 40th Degree of Latitude." 



Of Legaux's life, little is known, other than that he was a French vine-grower with an experi- 

 mental vineyard, as he says in the above article, at "Spring Mill, 13 miles X. X. W. from Philadel- 

 phia." Johnson speaks of L'.gaux as a philanthropist; McMahon calls him a " gentleman of Worth 

 and Science " ; while Rafinesque accuses him of fraud and deception in the matter of calling the native 

 grapes Bland and Alexander, Madeira and Cape. 



Judging the man from his article in The True Atneriean and from the words of his contemporaries, 

 he was a capable, enthusiastic and intelligent grape-grower. His philanthropy is more doubtful. 

 It is true that he distributed many grape plants but as he himself says to " fellow citizens possessing 

 pecuniary means." That he practiced deceit in the matter of the introduction of the Alexander 

 as the Cape is probable. However, his deceit, if such it were, may he forgotten and he should be 

 remembered as the chief disseminator of the Alexander, the first distinctive American variety of 

 commercial value. 



' TIte True American, March 24, iSoo. 



