The Swedes made some attempts at an early day to grow grapes on the
Delaware. Queen Christina instructed John Printz, governor of New
Sweden, to encourage the "culture of the vine" and to give the industry
his personal attention. Later when New Sweden had become a part of
Pennsylvania, William Penn encouraged vine-growing by importing cuttings
of French and Spanish vines; and several experimental vineyards were set
out in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, but all efforts to establish
bearing plantations came to naught. Penn's interest in grape-growing
seems to have been greatly stimulated by wine made by a friend of his
from native grapes which grew about Germantown.
There are no detailed accounts of grape-growing by the Dutch of New York
but the following taken from the writings of Jasper Dankers and Peter
Sluyter, two Hollanders who visited New York in 1679, soon after the
English took possession of New Netherland, indicates that there had been
attempts to cultivate grapes.[13] "I went along the shore to Coney
Island, which is separated from Long Island only by a creek, and around
the point, and came inside not far from a village called _Gravesant_,
and again home. We discovered on the roads several kinds of grapes still
on the vines, called _speck_ (pork) grapes, which are not always good,
and these were not; although they were sweet in the mouth at first, they
made it disagreeable and stinking. The small blue grapes are better, and
their vines grow in good form. Although they have several times
attempted to plant vineyards, and have not immediately succeeded, they,
nevertheless, have not abandoned the hope of doing so by and by, for
there is always some encouragement, although they have not, as yet,
discovered the cause of the failure." The "_speck_" grape was without
question _Vitis labrusca_ and the small blue grape was probably _Vitis
riparia_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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