FRUIT CULTURE IN AMERICA 317 



THE GRAPE 



Grapes grow wild in every part of North America, from the St. Lawrence 

 river to the Gulf of Mexico. There are twenty-six recognised species of Fitis, 

 varying in hardiness of vine, character of fruit, and in many other particulars. 

 No part of the world is so rich in native grapes as North America. The 

 Spaniards made wine of them in Florida as early as 1564 ; the English 

 colonists did the same at Roanoke, Jamestown, and Plymouth prior to 1630, 

 and the French at their settlements along the Mississippi and elsewhere, but 

 they all found it inferior to that made from the grapes of their native countries. 

 They naturally concluded that if wild grapes grew everywhere here, so would 

 the delicious sorts that had come down to them from Palestine. Cuttings were 

 brought over and planted. William Penn established a vineyard of the varieties 

 of Fitis vinifera near Philadelphia in 1683. The French planted vineyards of 

 these choice sorts in Virginia and along the Mississippi, The most notable 

 attempt was made by James Defour of Switzerland, in 1799, in Lexington, 

 Kentucky, where 633 acres were selected, and a company with |io,ooo capital 

 organised. But all these attempts proved disappointing. The vines did not 

 flourish, and no one could tell why. It was the ravages of fungus diseases and 

 the insect called phylloxera, one working on the leaves and fruit, and the other 

 on the roots, yet in such ways as were then mysterious to the viticulturists. 

 The native grapes were proof against them. 



Improvement of Varieties. — The next step was to select the best wild 

 varieties, and here began the improvement of our native grapes, which has 

 developed into wonderful proportions. Although these first varieties have 

 long since been abandoned for better ones, they gave a great stimulus to 

 American grape culture. The next epoch of importance was the introduction 

 of three varieties which came up from self-sown seed, that were the results of 

 the accidental cross-pollination of our native grapes with some of the delicious 

 foreign varieties that had so utterly failed to flourish. These were the Isabella, 

 Catawba, and Delaware, all being of distinct and widely separated origin. All 

 of them were eminently successful, and the Catawba and Delaware are now, 

 after more than fifty years of trial, counted among the most delicious and 

 successful of our grapes. But the discovery and introduction of the Concord 

 grape had the most potent influence of all. It was discovered growing wild 

 near Concord, Massachusetts, about 1850, and is of pure native blood, being a 

 chance seedling of the species Fitis Labrusca. It is to-day one of our leading 

 grapes, and there are millions of acres of it in bearing, scattered from Canada 

 to the Gulf of Mexico. From it have been grown thousands of valuable 

 seedlings, directly and indirectly, from which have been selected many choice 

 varieties. Some of them are the result of skilful crossing with the best varieties 

 from southern Europe. The varieties are red, white, and black, with all the 

 intermediate shades and tints, and they vary as much in flavour and other 

 characteristics, but they seem to meet our wants, except for raisins. 



Vineyards. — The first commercial vineyard of importance in America was 

 planted by Nicholas Longworth, about 10 miles below Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 



