226 THE GRAPES OF NEW YORK. 



for but little in grape markets. If this delicious fruit is to be saved to 

 cultivation it must be by the hands of the amateur. 



Croton came from Stephen W. Underhill' of Croton Point, New York, 

 from seed of Delaware pollinated by Chasselas de Fontainbleau. The 

 seed was planted in the spring of 1863 and the vine fruited for the first time 

 in 1865. The grape was first exhibited at the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society meeting in 1868. It was placed on the grape list of the American 

 Pomological Society fruit catalog in 1871 but was dropped in 1883, chiefly 

 on account of its susceptibility to fungal diseases. 



Vine medium to vigorous, often somewhat tender, usually productive, subject to 

 disease in unfavorable locations. Canes long, numerous, thick, rather dark reddish- 

 brown; nodes enlarged, usually not flattened; internodes medium to short; diaphragm 

 very thick; pith large; shoots glabrous; tendrils intermittent, long, bifid. 



' No one family has furnished so many members who have been prominent in American grape- 

 growing as the Underbills. The first of this remarkable family, Robert Underhill, was bom in York- 

 town, Westchester County, New York, in 1761. During his early life he appears to have been 

 engaged in various enterprises. At one time he was part owner and conductor of a flouring mill at 

 the head of navigation on the Croton River; later he sold his interest in this business and in 1804 

 removed to Croton Point, which he had previously bought. Here, during the War of 1812, the 

 supply of watermelons from the South being cut off, he planted eighty acres of melons, and it is said 

 that as many as six vessels were lying off Croton Point at one time waiting for the melons to mature. 

 Among other of his ventures was the growing of castor beans, and toward the end of his life he 

 became interested in viticulture. An account of his operations cultivating grapes is given in the 

 first part of this work. Robert Underhill died at Croton Point in 1829. After his death his two 

 sons, William Alexander Underhill and Robert T. Underhill, bought from their father's estate the 

 two hundred and fifty acres comprising Croton Point. Their holdings were not in common, WiUiam 

 A. Underhill having about one hundred and sixty-five acres and his brother the balance. 



R. T. Underhill was bom on the Croton River in 1802 and died in 1871 at Croton Point. 

 William A. Underhill was bom at the same place as his brother in 1804, and died suddenly while on 

 a trip to New York City in 1873. The first three Underbills were pioneer vineyardists in this State, 

 and were men of great enterprise and initiative, contributing much to American %-iticulture by pre- 

 cept and example; but none of them was an originator of new varieties. 



Stephen W. Underhill, son of William A. Underhill, was bom at Croton Point in 1837. In his 

 boyhood he became familiar with the grape-growing operations of his father and uncle, and about 

 i860 became interested in hybridizing as a means of originating new varieties. Most of his work 

 was done between i860 and 1870. He originated Black Defiance, Black Eagle, Croton, Irving, Sen- 

 asqua and many other named and unnamed sorts. Of his varieties it may be said that they gener- 

 ally show too many Vinifera weaknesses for profitable commercial sorts. S. W. Underbill is still 

 livmg at Croton-on-Hudson, a short distance from Croton Point, the scene of the labors of three 

 generations of the Underhill family. Since the death of his father, in 1S73. ^'^ ''^^ devoted himself 

 almost exclusively to brick-making, an occupation in which his father had been interested. 



