38 THE EVOLUTION OF OUR NATIVE FRUITS 



the colony of New Switzerland was afterwards and is 

 at present called. He died June G, 1850. 



In this new location, the vines and fruit trees were 

 planted on the bottom lands which slope gradually up 

 from the Ohio. The labor of clearing the land and 

 the haste for results were so great that the land was 

 not plowed previous to the setting of the vines. "The 

 Swissers on the borders of the Ohio,'' wrote John 

 James Dufour, "having the ground to clear from a 

 heavy forest of extraordinary big poplar [tulip-tree] 

 and beech trees, and depending only on their own 

 Labor, did not prepare their ground according to the 

 aforesaid rules, but satisfied themselves, by digging a 

 hole for each vine the same as for any other tree, 

 about twelve or fifteen inches in diameter, with the 

 same depth, and it being tilled with the top earth, 



tlie\ stuck the scion in the middle of it. Hie ftrsl 



vineyard planted on the borders of the Ohio, was dis- 

 tanced six feel by two and a half feet, it has been 

 worn out in sixteen years; on the spot, there is now 

 [1826] young vines growing, since three years." The 

 first wine at Ycvay was made in 1806 or 1807. The 

 vintage in L808 was 800 gallons, and in 1809 aboul 

 1,200 gallons. 



One of the besl cultivators in the little colony was 

 •han Daniel Mererod (Pig. 7), whose wife was An- 

 toinette Dufour. It was probablj Mererod who made 

 the first wine at the new settlement. Hi- place may 



still lie seen (Pig. s >. with the old wine cellar and 

 the ponderous wine-press ; and a few Podfl in front 



of it rolls the might} torrent of the ohi<>. At one 

 place a grape stock persists, which, although cul off 

 and abused year after year, still throws oul its shoots 



