34 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



was in spite of the fact that from the first the settlers had noted that when 

 the vines were open to the sun the crop was improved. 



In the northern colonies, as in Virginia, about the first object to attract 

 the attention of the early settlers was the wild grape. The grape, possibly 

 more than any other natural product of the soil, is mentioned in the pre- 

 liminary surveys of the Atlantic Coast as offering reasonable ground for the 

 expectation that American soils would furnish all of the supplies necessary 

 for the sustenance and comfort of settlers. A few statements from the 

 early explorers and visitors in the Middle and New England States will 

 serve to show how plentiful wild grapes were in these regions and the esti- 

 mation in which they were held. 



In Delaware, Beauchamp Plantagenet, describing a "Uvedale under 

 Websneck," in his account of New Albion, says that it contains " four sorts 

 of excellent great vines running on mulberry and sassafras trees; there are 

 four sorts of grapes, the first is the Thoulouse Muscat, sweet scented, the 

 second the great fox and thick grape, after five months reaped being 

 boiled and salted, and well fined, it is a strong red Xeres; the third a light 

 Claret, the fourth a white grape creeps on the land, maketh a pure gold 

 color white wine; Tenis Pale, the Frenchman, of these four made eight 

 sorts of excellent wine, and of the Muscat acute boiled that the second 

 draught will fox ' a reasonable pate four months old : and here may be 

 gathered and made two hundred ton in the vintage month, and replanted 

 will mend." 



In New England the seventeenth century notices of the wild grape are 

 even more numerous than similar records to the south but they are briefer 

 and the northern observer did not recognize the possibilities of their domes- 

 tic use and of bringing them under cultivation. This seeming neglect of 

 the Puritans was not because the northern wild grapes are inferior to those 

 of Virginia and the Carolinas, but more likely because of the social and 

 industrial conditions of the colonists. The richer planters in the South 

 had time for wine-making, the only purpose for which grapes were then 

 grown, and for growing the grapes. The New Englanders had to stniggle 

 for the necessities of life. 



' " Will fox," 1. f. intoxicate. See footnote on page 4. 



