THE GR.\PES OF NEW YORK. 33 



closing his description he states that by art and industry skillful vignerons 

 could bring viticulture unto such perfection as will enable the colony to 

 export wine to the mother country. 



An anonymous writer in 1649, '^^'ho sets out to give a " full and true 

 relation of the present state of the plantations, their health, peace and 

 plenty," etc., etc., thought that the colony needed onlv some one to set 

 an example to the ordinary settlers to induce them to grow grapes. This 

 writer sa\-s: " Vines in abundance and variety, do grow naturally over all 

 the land, but b\- the birds and beasts, most devoured before they come to 

 perfection and ripenesse; but this testifies and declares. That the Ground, 

 and the Climate is most proper, and the Commodity of Wine is not a con- 

 temptible iMerchandize; but some men of worth and estate must give in 

 these things example to the inferior inhabitants and ordinarv sort of men, 

 to shew them the gain and Commodity by it, which they will not believe 

 but by experience before their faces:" ' 



A hundred years later, according to Beverlv, the grape was scarcelv 

 cultivated, the masses of the people being content with the fruit of the wild 

 vines which grew ever}-where in the forest. So far as is known there were 

 in Beverly's time, 1722, no named varieties and there had been no efforts 

 to improve the wild grapes in any way. There are no indications from 

 the early writings to show that the Virginian settlers even knew how to 

 propagate grapes. The reason for this neglect is largely to be sought for 

 in the last sentence in the subjoined footnote from Beverly.- This neglect 



' Anonymous. A Perfect Description of Virginia. 1649, Peter Force's Tracts, Vol. II, 1838. 



' " Grape vines of the English stock, as well as those of their own production, bear most abundantly, 

 if they are suffered to run near the ground, and increase very kindly by slipping; yet very few have 

 them at all in their gardens, much less endeavor to improve them by cutting or laying. But since 

 the first impression of this book, some vineyards have been attempted, and one is brought to per- 

 fection, of seven hundred and fifty gallons a year. The wine drinks at present greenish, but the owner 

 doubts not of good wine, in a year or two more, and takes great delight that way. 



" When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing, with a vine upon it, open 

 to the sun and air, that vine generally produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the 

 woods. I have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than w^ould load a London cart. 

 And for all this, the people till of late never removed any of them into their gardens, but contented 

 themselves throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild." Beverly, Robert. 

 The History of Virginia: a6o. 1722, Reprint, 1855. 



