Carollton, below Baltimore, in Maryland; whither I went on purpose from
Philadelphia in 1796, there was a small vineyard kept by a French
vinedresser, and where they had tried a few sorts of the indigenous
grapes. At the Southern Liberties of Philadelphia, I saw in 1806, a
plantation of a large assortment of the best species of French grapes;
which a French vinedresser had brought over the Atlantic. They were at
their 2d or 3d years: they had not been attacked by the sickness: their
nurse was yet full of hope.--In 1796, I saw also, near the Susquehannah
river, not far from Middletown, a vineyard that had been planted by a
German; but who having died sometime before, the vineyard had been
wholly neglected. I was told, it had produced some wine; but it had
suffered so much delapidation, that I could not recognize the species of
grapes."
With full knowledge of the failures of the past in growing grapes, and
after his disheartening visits to a score or more of worthless vineyards
planted with the grapes of his native country, Dufour embarked in the
_Kentucky Vineyard Society_ enterprise and gave the Old World grapes a
thorough trial on an extensive scale, with an abundance of capital, and,
to care for the vines, as skilled labor as could be obtained in the
vineyards of Europe. As was the case with all past undertakings of the
kind so this one proved a failure. In the words of Dufour "a sickness
took hold of all our vines except a few stocks of Cape and Madeira
grapes." The promoters became disheartened and the vineyard after being
cultivated for several years was abandoned.
Members of the colony, thinking that a more favorable location might be
found elsewhere in the valley of the Ohio, settled at Vevay, Indiana, in
1802. Dufour and several of his relatives were granted the privilege of
purchasing lands with extended credit by an act of Congress May 1st,
1802. They purchased 2500 acres at the location of the new colony in
Indiana and began anew the culture of the vine. For a time there was an
element of prosperity in the enterprise but the vines became diseased
and died, only one sort, the Cape or Alexander, gave returns for the
care bestowed and by 1835 the Vevay vineyards ceased to exist. Could
Dufour have foreseen the value of the native grapes for cultivation and
devoted the capital and energy spent on European sorts to the best wild
plants from the woods, grape culture in America would have been put
forward half a century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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