XV 
EUROPEAN GRAPES DIE IN THE EAST 
I SN’T IT ODD that, when Europeans brought their 
grapevines to America and planted them alongside 
local varieties that were flourishing, the European vines 
languished and died! 
Yet this is just what happened. America had been 
called Vineland by Lief the Lucky, the Norwegian who 
came over four hundred years before Columbus did. 
There were more species of vine in America than in all 
the rest of the world combined. But the cultivated and 
improved varieties grown in Europe would not live any¬ 
where between Maine and Texas. Why they would not 
live in America remained a mystery for nearly three hun¬ 
dred years. 
The mystery became even greater after California was 
settled. The Spanish padres brought their grapes with 
them — these same varieties that would not live in the 
eastern states. In California they took root and pros¬ 
pered. The biggest grapevine in the world is growing 
today in Santa Barbara County, in California. It is of 
European stock. It was planted by a Mexican woman in 
1842. Its trunk is eight feet around, and its branches 
spread out until they cover half an acre. It yields ten 
tons of mission grapes a year. 
The early settlers in the eastern states made many 
efforts to grow the choice grapes to which they had been 
accustomed in Europe. Whole colonies of grape-growers 
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