THE KENTUCKY SOCIETY 25 



Bui the most interesting vineyard which this inde- 

 fatigable explorer found was that at Spring Mill, on 

 the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. This was planted by 

 the Frenchman, Peter Legauz— whom M'Mahon calls 

 "a gentleman of worth and science"— but about the 

 close of the century it was taken up by "a wealthy 

 - iciety formed by subscription," in Philadelphia, an.] 

 incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania "for 

 the promotion of the culture of the vine." The sec- 

 retary of this Society was the excellent Bernard 

 .M'Mahon. author of the "American Gardener's Cal- 

 endar," and whom every botanist and nurseryman re- 

 calls in tin- Mahonia barberrii - 



()t ■•'" the vines which Dufour saw. none suf- 

 ficed "to pay for .m.- half of their attendance" save 

 tli-- "vines planted in the gardens of New Fork and 

 Philadelphia, and about a dozen of plants in the 

 vineyard of Mr. Legaux." Ami from these few 

 plants of Legaux's, under Dnfour's care, began the 

 most important experiment in American gra] olture. 



Dufour was now ready to locate land and to estab- 

 lish the proposed grape colony. Be chose a location 

 111 the Greal Bend of the Kentucky River, about 

 twenty-five miles from Lexington l>\ the present pikes, 

 and thirteen mil.- from the present village of Nicholas- 

 ville. "The Kentucky Vineyard Society" appears t.> 

 have been established under his inspiration. II. • Bays 

 that it was "an association for the culture of the grape 

 in Kentucky, under the same principles of the on.. 



iblished at Philadelphia, though not knowing, how- 

 ever, which ..f those societies had been the first." 

 Tin- organization "raaj be with great propriety eon- 

 ■idered a- the beginner, the true introducer of the 



