24 THE GRAPES OF XEW YORK. 



He left a lasting impress on the horticulture and viticulture of America, 

 through his experimental efforts with plants and his contribution to 

 American horticultural literatuie. The Underhills (the father had been 

 joined by his sons R. T. and W. A. Underhill) planted a vineyard of 

 Catawbas and Isabellas in 1827. These vineyards grew until they covered 

 seventy-five acres, the product of which was marketed in the metropolis 

 and nearby cities. The grapes from this vineyard often sold for twenty-five 

 cents a pound and supplied the whole market of the region. The grape 

 industry of the Hudson River Valley began with Parmentier and the 

 Underhills. 



Another Frenchman, Alphonse Loubat, planted a vineyard of forty 

 acres at Utrecht, Long Island, containing about 150,000 plants of foreign 

 varieties. Here, we are told, " he strove against mildew and sun-scald 

 for several years, but had to yield at last, as the elements were too much 

 for human exertions to overcome."' Loubat attempted to protect his 

 grapes from mildew by covering them with paper bags and was probably 

 the originator of the practice of baggmg grapes. 



Net infrequently one may still find some varieties of the Old World 

 grape grown out of doors with a fair degree of success in favored locations 

 but always by the amateur and never in a commercial vineyard. These 

 few pages rehearsing repeated failures without a single success, serve to 

 show the uselessness of attempting to grow foreign grapes in eastern Amer- 

 ica. Their culture has been tried by thousands on a small scale and by 

 many individuals with experience, knowledge and capital on a large scale. 

 With all, the results have been the same; a year or two of promise, then 

 disease, dead vines and an abandoned vmeyard. 



The causes for these failures have been indicated. As Dufour says, 

 "a sickness takes hold of the vines." Phylloxera, mildew, rot — native 

 parasites to which native grapes are comparatively immune — " take hold " 

 of the foreign sorts and they die. 



It is probable, too, that our climate, at the North at least, is not well 

 Suited to the production of the Old World grape. As a species, the Vinifera 

 grapes thrive best in climates equable in both temperature and humidity. 



' Fuller, Andrew S. Record of Horticulture: 21. 1S66. 



