Adlum did not write from theory alone for he was the owner and
cultivator of vineyards near Georgetown, in the District of Columbia,
where he grew both native and foreign grapes. The latter he finally
discarded with the statement that the way to success in America "is to
drop most kinds of foreign vines at once (except a few for the table)
and seek for the best kinds of our largest native Grapes". The best
information from Adlum's pen regarding native grapes and their culture
is to be found in the _American Farmer_, published in Baltimore. He
wrote mainly during the years 1824 to 1830. He was neither a clear nor
an accurate writer and his imagination and enthusiasm had full sway at
all times; yet, notwithstanding these faults, he must be counted as one
of the geniuses of his day, as devoted to the welfare of the country, as
having almost a prophetic vision, and as actuated by the best of
motives. His struggle for a national experimental vineyard, the work of
his pen, his dissemination of the Catawba and other grapes, and his
vineyard experiments, give Adlum a high place among the improvers of
American grapes.
John James Dufour gives the next glimpse of the beginnings of American
viticulture in his _Vine Dresser's Guide_ published in Cincinnati in
1826. It is but a glimpse, however, for Dufour was a foreigner, and, as
we have seen, came to America to grow the Old World grape. His efforts
at grape-growing furnished the climax to the two centuries of failures
in growing _Vitis vinifera_ in America but did not benefit the new
viticulture of the country greatly.[70] His only contribution of note
was one made in spite of himself, namely the introduction of the
Alexander, which he incorrectly called Cape, an American grape, as a
commercial variety, Legaux having first brought it prominently to
notice. Dufour would never admit that this variety, the only one to
succeed in his vineyards in Kentucky and Indiana, was a native grape and
says of it in the preface of his book: "I will also try to save the
character of our Cape grapes from being made merely wild grapes, because
some are now found in the woods; and, to put any one in the way to
distinguish wild from tame grapes, I will give the description of the
botanical characters of the blossom of both sorts." In his text he
fulfills the promise in the preface and devotes some pages to "save the
character of our Cape grapes."
Dufour's visit of inspection of the vineyards of the country in 1799 has
been noted in discussing the Old World grape. In this trip only foreign
grapes interested him and he mentioned the wild species but to condemn
them for cultivation. In his book published twenty-seven years later he
shows no change of opinion and though at this time there were a number
of meritorious native sorts he describes only European varieties. Dufour
was a true foreigner and could find little of value in the New World
that did not come from the Old World.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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