Peter Legaux, in his patriotic address "To the People of the American
States,"[60] wherein he admonishes them the culture of the vine is a
national duty, was intent, as we have seen, on making the Old World
grape grow in America--even if it were necessary to palm off an American
sort as an Old World kind. He dismisses American grapes with even less
attention than Antill gave them, his sole notice of them being embodied
in the remarks that "with skillful management many of them would make
good and wholesome wines" and that "if the native grapes of America are
not the most eligible for vineyards, others are now within the reach of
its inhabitants." Indirectly he was, however, of great service in
distributing the first native varieties, for as Rafinesque says, "by
calling our Bland and Alexander grapes _Madeira_ and _Cape_, he was
instrumental in diffusing them among those who would not have noticed
nor bought them if known as native vines."
Following Legaux's address of 1800 several treatises were written within
a few years which give us a very clear idea of the status of the
American grapes at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Chief of
these, and probably in chronological order, is a paper in _The Domestic
Encyclopedia_ on the vine, written by James Mease, M. D.[61] It appears
that Dr. Mease wrote in 1802 but the Encyclopedia did not appear until
1804.[62] Embodied in the article is an "interesting paper on the vines
of the United States drawn up by William Bartram at the request of the
editor." Bartram's paper was written in the spring of 1802. Mease's
discussion of the vine merits especial attention. While the best of
Antill's and Legaux's observations are made use of, yet much is added to
them and the paper is far more reasonable in every respect than those of
either of the two previous writers, and is wholly lacking in the
ostentatious modesty and circumlocution of Antill and the grandiloquence
and self esteem of Legaux. It may justly be considered the first
rational discussion of the culture of the grape in America.
Mease's paper deserves attention for another reason. It contains the
first public utterance condemning the culture of the Old World grape and
recommending the cultivation of native grapes. He says: "From the
experience, however, of the editor and his friends who have found much
difficulty in naturalizing foreign vines, he recommends the cultivation
of the native grapes of the United States, particularly the _Vitis
sylvestris_, [_Vitis aestivalis_] or small blue or bunch grape; Bland's,
Tasker's or Alexander's, and the bull-grape of Carolina and Georgia." It
appears from the whole discussion by Mease and Bartram in this treatise
that the only varieties of native grapes cultivated in 1804 were
Alexander's or Tasker's grape, Bland's grape, the Bull grape[63] of
Carolina and Georgia, and the Raccoon grape.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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