66 THE VINE AND CIVILISATION. 
Wild grapes were found by the early discoverers and ex- 
plorers of this continent., In 1609 Samuel Champlain, the 
French colonizer of Canada, announced the indigenous grape 
vine on the shores of the lake bearing his name, and predicted 
great results to the French from the cultivation of the vine. 
Charleroix, in descending the Kankakee, in 1721, near its junce- 
tion with the Illinois, found grapes the size of musket balls, 
very ripe but of bad taste, and which he considered the same 
as those called plum grapes in Louisiana. 
The earliest account we have of wine produced on the Mis- 
sissippi is that of the French settlers at Kaskaskia, made in 
1769 —one hundred and ten hogsheads of wine from the wild 
grape. The Swiss colony of Vevay made wine from a native 
grape in 1800, called Cape grape, after trying to cultivate the 
European grape (vitis vinifera), in which, as others had, in 
numerous instances, they failed, from the cause that is now - 
known to have been the phylloxera, an insect that fortunately 
affects the vines of native origin to a very small extent, while 
the vitis vinifera is, unfortunately, killed invariably in two or 
three years. 
The European vitis vinifera was considered the only true 
wine grape, being an abundant bearer and of delicate flavour. 
In the colonial history of the American States, we find many 
attempts were made to introduce it for cultivation, plants and 
vine-dressers being sent from Europe for that purpose. All 
varieties of the wine grape were tried, and all failed alike when 
planted east of the Rocky Mountains. 
In the late publication of the Bushberg Catalogue, by Messrs. 
Bush & Son & Meissner, Jefferson county, Mo., Grape Growers 
and Propagators, much useful information is given in regard 
to the varieties, propagation and proper mode of ere of the 
American grape vines. 
