THE GRAPES OF XEW YORK. 



45 



there had been efforts to grow Vitis vinijcra in many widely separated 

 regions. The futihty of attempting to grow the Old World grape Ijecame 

 apparent, so far as we may judge from written accounts, to but few men, 

 however. To Dr. James Mease must be accorded tlie honor of first perceiv- 

 ing and setting forth in print the fact that American viticulture must rise 

 from native grapes. Possibly the second man to voice the same sentiment 

 was Thomas Jefferson, ever alert for the agricultural welfare of the country, 

 who wrote to John Adlum in 1809, speaking of the Alexander grape:' 

 " I think it will be well to push the culture of that grape without losing 

 time and efforts in search of foreign vines, which it will take centuries to 

 adapt to our soil and climate." It is probable that Jefferson, who it appears 

 was a frequent correspondent of Adlum's, stimulated the latter to the 

 publication of a book on grape culture. This appeared in 1823, " for the 

 purpose ", as the author says in his preface, " of diffusing some practical 

 and useful information throughout the country on the best method of 

 cultivating the native grape and of making Wine ". 



Thus Adlum's- Cultivation of the Vi^tcwas the first American book on 

 American grapes. The author's intentions, as indicated in his preface, 

 quoted above, were good; but his book, as an exposition on native grape 

 culture, is a failure. The work is concerned for most part with wine-making 



' Adlum, John. Cultivation of tlie Vine: 149. Second Edition, Washington, 1S2S. 



-John Adlum, a native of Pennsylvania, was bom in 1759 and died at Georgetown, D. C, in 

 1836. Adlum was one of the first men to see clearly the possibility of improving the wild grapes of 

 America and of bringing them under cultivation. He published accounts of this fruit in his Ctdtivation 

 of the Vine and in the agricultural papers of his time, thereby aiding in bringing it into public notice 

 as a cultivated plant. At " The Vineyard ", near Georgetown, he established an experimental plan- 

 tation of grapes from which he distributed many vines, chief of which were those of the Catawba, 

 a variety for whose dissemination he is largely responsible. Adlum tried without avail to have the 

 national government found an experimental farm for the culture of grapes and his effort was one 

 of the first to secure governmental aid in agricultural experimentation. Beside his work with the grape, 

 Adlum was deeply interested in other phases of agriculture and in the scientific movements of his 

 time. He was a soldier of the Revolution, a brigadier-general in the militia of Pennsylvania, a county 

 judge, and a civil engineer and surveyor. In spite of his work in the early part of the last century 

 for agriculture and for his State and country, Adlum was practically unknown to the present 

 generation until a sketch of his life and work appeared in Bailey's Tlw Evolution of Our Xa:ive 

 Fruits from which this sketch is written. Adlum's memory is perpetuated in the name of the 

 beautiful climbing fumitory of one of the Northern Atlantic States, AJlumnia cirhosa, bestowed 

 upon him by his contemporary, Rafinesque. (For a more complete account of Adlum's life, see 

 Bailey's Evolution of Our Native Fruits, pp. 50-61.) 



