THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 35 



It is significant, too, that the Southerners were fond of wine, and 

 imported Madeira in large quantities. In New England, mm seems to 

 have been preferred to wine, and as its manufacture from molasses is very 

 simple and the latter was to be had from the West Indies at small cost, 

 wine-making and grape-growing received small attention. 



Yet nearly all of the writers on the resources of the New England Colo- 

 nies mentioned grapes. Thus Governor Edward Winslow writing in 162 1 

 of the country in which the Puritans had found a home says: "here are 

 grapes, white and red, and very sweet and strong also." We have seen 

 that Winthrop was so impressed with the possibility of grape-growing in 

 the new colony that he secured a grant of Governor's Island in Boston 

 Harbor upon which to plant a vineyard. In Thomas Morton's A'ciu English 

 Canaan is found the best account of the wild grapes of New England as 

 the Puritan found them. He says:' " Vines, of this kinde of trees, there 

 are that beare grapes of three colours, that is to say: white, black, and red. 



" The Country is so apt for vines, that (but for the fire at the spring of 

 the yeare) the vines would so over spreade the land, that one should not be 

 able to passe for them, the fruit is as bigg of some as a musket bullet, and 

 is excellent in taste." 



John Josselyn in New England's Rarities, speaks of a grape having " a 

 taste of gunpowder," a short but vivid description of Vitis labriisca.- Wil- 

 liam Wood in Xew England's Prospect gives still another account of the 

 grapes of New England.^ 



• New English Canaan, 1632. Reprinted in Force's Tracts, 1838. 



' Vine, much differing in the fruit, all of them very fleshy, some reasonably pleasant; others 

 have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in swamps, and low wet Grounds. Josselyn, John, 

 Gent. New England's Rarities: 66. London, 1672. 



^ Speaking of the Home-bound tree (probably hornbeam from his description) he says: " This 

 Tree growing with broad spread Armes, the vines winde their curling branches about them; wnich 

 vines affoard great store of grapes, which are very big both for the grape and Cluster, sweet and {,ood : 

 these be of two sorts, red and white, there is likewise a smaller kind of grape which groweth in the 

 Islands which is sooner ripe and more delectable ; so that there is no knowne reason why as good wine 

 may not be made in those parts, as well as in Burdetiax in France; being under the same degree. It 

 is a great pittie no man sets upon such a venture, whereby he might in small time inrich himselfe. 

 and benefit the Countrie, I know nothing which doth hinder but want of skilfuU men to manage such 

 an employment: For the countrey is hot enough, the ground good enough, and many convenient 

 hills lye towards the south Sunne, as if they were there placed for the purpose." Wood, WilUam. 

 New England's Prospect: 20. London, 1634. 



