GRAPE VINES. 43 



tVuit for the table ; but when planted in exposed vine- 

 yards, the late frosts and heavy showers of the spring in- 

 jure them or render them sterile. 



11. A capital mistake was the attempt to make Ma- 

 deira wine in America, instead of American wine. Our 

 climate and soil being neither dry nor volcanic as in 

 Madeira, could never produce similar wine, even if we 

 jiad tlie Vidonia or Madeira Grape, and knew how to 

 cultivate it and manage the wine. Besides Madeira, 

 although a fashionable and costly wine, is bad, unhealthy, 

 and not wortliy of our attention. The same with Port 

 wine. 



12. These and other causes have discouraged the at- 

 tempts of a vine company established on purpose in 

 Pennsylvania. Mr. Legoux, the manager, by his decep- 

 tions in grapes, calling them by false names, and his bad 

 management, threw discredit on the attempt. However, 

 by calling our Bland and Alexander grapes, Madeira 

 and Cape, he was instrumental in diffusing them among 

 those who would not have noticed nor bought them if 

 known as native vines. 



13- Notwithstanding these difficulties, many patriotic 

 individuals have persisted in the endeavor to make the 

 United States a wine country, by establishing nurseries 

 and vineyards. Such were Major Adlum, of George- 

 town, and Mr. Dufour, of Vevay, who have also both 

 published works on the cultivation of vines. Mr. Samuel 

 Maurick, of South Carolina (the first exporter of our 

 cotton in 1784) who establislied a large vineyard at Pen- 

 dleton. Mr. Thomas Echelberger, of York, Penn. who 

 has been instrumental in establishing 20 vineyards near 

 York. 



14. In 1825 I collected an account of our principal 

 vineyards and nurseries of vines. They were then only 

 60 of 1 to 20 acres each, altogether 600 acres. While 

 now, in 1830, they amount to 200 of 3 to 40 acres, or 

 nearly 5000 acres of vineyards. Thus having increased 

 tenfold within 5 years, at which rate they promise to 

 become a permanent and increasing cultivation. 



15. Wishing to preserve the names of the public bene- 

 factors who had in 1835 established our first vineyards, 



