60 CULTIVATION 



year 1001, they coasted along from Greenland, as 

 far south as New England, where they found the 

 vine in such profusion, that they gave the land a 

 name expressive of its produce, and called it ^'Win- 

 land dat Gode^^^ (the good Vineland.) We are 

 also told, that when the first settlers of New Eng- 

 land came, they found vines growing wild on the 

 hills, and Indian corn on the plains, just as the 

 Northmen did centuries before them. The earliest 

 attempts at vine cultivation in the United States, 

 were made by the London Company, who estab- 

 lished a vineyard in Virginia, about the year 1620. 

 In that year, over 1200 emigrants arrived, and it is 

 supposed that the vines were brought with them 

 from France at that time. The infant colony had 

 heretofore been extremely unfortunate, and great 

 efforts were made to place them in a more flour- 

 ishing condition. Most of them were in single life, 

 and in order to attach them permanently to the 

 country, about ninety young women were prevailed 

 upon to embark for the colony. Upon their arrival, 

 no difficulty was experienced in finding agreeable 

 partners, — the price of a wife being about 150 

 pounds of tobacco. Thus, with the tendrils of 

 domestic affection, and the tendrils of the vine, it 

 was fondly hoped that brighter and happier days 

 would shine upon them. But alas! in three years 

 after, 347 of their number fell in one hour, by the 

 hands of the remorseless savage. From thib time, 

 we hear nothing more respecting their vineyard. 

 Master Ralph Sone, in lf585, says of the grapes 



