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8 Eastern Viticulture Comes of Age

1. An account of experiments with seedlings in the first half of the nineteenth century has been written by J. R. McGrew in "A History of American Grape Varieties before 1900," American Wine Society Journal 14 (Spring 1982): 3-5. [BACK]

2. In 1828 the Bouschets in France developed hybrid grapes for the sake of producing varieties with greater color. But no one seems to have attempted a hybrid that would be a general advance over the varieties already available. [BACK]

3. Since MacMahon was secretary to the Pennsylvania Vineyard Company founded by Legaux, his recognition that the Alexander is a native hybrid is especially interesting, for it contradicts Legaux's assertion that the Alexander was a vinifera, the "Cape" grape, as he called it. Was MacMahon condoning a fraud when he allowed Legaux to say so? Or did he not recognize the identity of his company's "Cape" with the Alexander? [BACK]

4. Bernard MacMahon, The American Gardener's Calendar (Philadelphia, 1806), p. 235. [BACK]

5. John James Dufour, The American Vine-Dresser's Guide (Cincinnati, 1826), pp. 39, 306. [BACK]

6. William Robert Prince, Treatise on the Vine (New York, 1830), p. 224.

7. Ibid., pp. 252-53.

8. Ibid., p. 254. [BACK]

6. William Robert Prince, Treatise on the Vine (New York, 1830), p. 224.

7. Ibid., pp. 252-53.

8. Ibid., p. 254. [BACK]

6. William Robert Prince, Treatise on the Vine (New York, 1830), p. 224.

7. Ibid., pp. 252-53.

8. Ibid., p. 254. [BACK]

9. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook, 1899 (Washington, D.C., 1900), p. 475; U. P. Hedrick, The Grapes of New York (Albany, N.Y., 1908), p. 501. [BACK]

10. Liberty Hyde Bailey, Sketch of the Evolution of Our Native Fruits (New York, 1898), p. 70. [BACK]

11. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 56.

12. Ibid., p. 166.

13. Ibid., p. 165. [BACK]

11. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 56.

12. Ibid., p. 166.

13. Ibid., p. 165. [BACK]

11. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 56.

12. Ibid., p. 166.

13. Ibid., p. 165. [BACK]

14. The life of Rogers appears in the Dictionary of American Biography . [BACK]

15. George W. Campbell, "The Grape and Its Improvement by Hybridizing, Cross-Breeding, and Seedlings," Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1862 (Washington, D.C.,'1863), p. 215.

16. Ibid., p. 216. [BACK]

15. George W. Campbell, "The Grape and Its Improvement by Hybridizing, Cross-Breeding, and Seedlings," Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1862 (Washington, D.C.,'1863), p. 215.

16. Ibid., p. 216. [BACK]

17. Dictionary of American Biography , s.v. "Rogers, Edward Staniford." [BACK]

18. For Campbell, see the Dictionary of National Biography ; for Ricketts, see Hedrick, Grapes of New York , pp. 318-19; and for Haskell, his autobiography, A Narrative of the Life, Experience, and Work of an American Citizen (Ipswich, Mass., 1896). [BACK]

19. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 251; Kansas State Horticultural Society, Transactions, 1871 (Topeka, 1872), pp. 72-75; id., Transactions, 1872 (Topeka, 1873), pp. 54-59. [BACK]

20. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 192. [BACK]

21. Mark Miller, Wine A Gentleman's Game (New York, 1984), pp. 23-24. [BACK]

22. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 231.

23. Ibid., pp. 232-33. One pleasingly romantic notion was that the Delaware was a seedling of the Traminer vines that Joseph Bonaparte had tried to grow in his exile at Bordentown, New Jer- [BACK]

22. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 231.

23. Ibid., pp. 232-33. One pleasingly romantic notion was that the Delaware was a seedling of the Traminer vines that Joseph Bonaparte had tried to grow in his exile at Bordentown, New Jer-

sey (Friedrich Muench, in George Husmann, American Grape Growing and Wine Making [New York, 1880], p. 180). [BACK]

24. Bailey, Evolution of Our Native Fruits , pp. 71-72. [BACK]

25. For Grant, see Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 304. [BACK]

26. Gardener's Monthly 7 (1865): 52. [BACK]

27. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 58 . [BACK]

28. American Agriculturist 25 (September 1866): 338. [BACK]

29. See Henry Christman, "Iona Island and the Fruit Growers' Convention of 1864," New York History 48 (1967): 332-51. [BACK]

30. Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 305. [BACK]

31. Philip Wagner, A Wine-Grower's Guide (New York, 1955), p. 210. [BACK]

32. U. P. Hedrick, Grapes and Wines from Home Vineyards (New York, 1945), p. 167.

33. Ibid., p. 149. [BACK]

32. U. P. Hedrick, Grapes and Wines from Home Vineyards (New York, 1945), p. 167.

33. Ibid., p. 149. [BACK]

34. For Bull, see the Dictionary of American Biography and the series of articles by W.J. Burtscher, "Ephraim Bull and the Concord Grape," American Fruit Grower 65 (1945): 12, 24, 26, 28-29, 35. [BACK]

35. Fifth Annual Report of the Secretary, Massachusetts Board of Agriculture (Boston, 1858), p. 197. [BACK]

36. American Agriculturist 12 (1854): 37. [BACK]

37. Bailey, Evolution of Our Native Fruits , p. 72. [BACK]

38. The dominance of the Concord has also created a confusion in this country about Kosher wines, which are popularly held to be sweet, "grapey" wines. The idea grew up from the accidental circumstance that Kosher winemakers in the East, where the earliest large Jewish communities were located, found that Concord grapes were what they mainly had to work with. Naturally, they, too, had to sugar their Concord wines in order to make them palatable. But any wine—dry, sweet, red, white—may be Kosher. Had the Jewish communities in this country been in California rather than in New York, American Kosher wine would have been a very different thing—as it still may be. [BACK]

39. American Agriculturist 23 (November 1864): 310; 24 (February 1865): 59; 25 (October 1866): 439; Hedrick, Grapes of New York , p. 220. [BACK]

40. This is one of the details that remain obscure: were there three generations, or only two, required to produce the Concord? [BACK]

41. Wagner, American Wines and Wine-Making , P. 35. [BACK]

42. So Bull stated in an address in 1866, adding: "I will not denounce those as intemperate, who use pure wine without being intoxicated by its use" (quoted in F. Clark, Regulation versus Prohibition [Lowell, Mass., 1866], p. 20). [BACK]

43. William Chazanof, Welch's Grape Juice (Syracuse, N.Y., 1977), p. 40. [BACK]

44. Bailey, Evolution of Our Native Fruits , p. 1. [BACK]

45. Hedrick, History of Horticulture , p. 507. [BACK]

46. J. N. Primm, Economic Policy in the Development of a Western State: Missouri, 1820-1860 (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), p. 115. [BACK]

47. Western Horticultural Review I (1850-51): 293. [BACK]

48. See Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1867 (Washington, D.C., 1868), pp. 388, 392; Southern Cultivator 16 (1858): 312; Johann Becker, Der Weinbau (Evansville, Ind., 1860), Nachtrage; American Agriculturist 25 (November 1866); U.S. Department of Agriculture, List of Agricultural Societies (Washington, D.C., 1876) (for Nauvoo); American Agriculturist 27 (April 1868): 130; Grape Culturist 1 (1869): 28. [BACK]

49. The appeal of Peter Chazotte, in 1822, for example, for a subsidy to undertake the "culture of vines, olives, capers, almonds, etc." in the southern United States (he had Florida in mind) met with no success ( American State Papers, Public Lands [Washington, D.C. 1834], 3: 460ff). Yet two years later the Marquis de Lafayette was granted lands in Florida for the cultivation of the vine and olive ( Florida Historical Sorely Quarterly 1 [July 1908]: 10-11). [BACK]

50. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, when commissioner of patents, took a great interest in promoting agriculture, and persuaded Congress in 1839 to give $1,000 towards the cost of distributing seeds, carrying out agricultural experiments, and gathering statistics. This was the beginning of government aid to agriculture in the United States: see the caption to frontispiece, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Yearbook 1902 (Washington, D.C., 1903). [BACK]

51. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1859, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1860), p. 39.

52. Ibid., p. 70.

53. Ibid., p. 17; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1863 (Washington, D.C., 1863), pp. 548-49; 1864, p. 10; 1865, pp. 13-16; 1866, pp. 18-19, 97-114. [BACK]

51. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1859, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1860), p. 39.

52. Ibid., p. 70.

53. Ibid., p. 17; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1863 (Washington, D.C., 1863), pp. 548-49; 1864, p. 10; 1865, pp. 13-16; 1866, pp. 18-19, 97-114. [BACK]

51. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1859, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1860), p. 39.

52. Ibid., p. 70.

53. Ibid., p. 17; Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1863 (Washington, D.C., 1863), pp. 548-49; 1864, p. 10; 1865, pp. 13-16; 1866, pp. 18-19, 97-114. [BACK]

54. Especially the system devised by William Kniffen: see U. P. Hedrick, Manual of American Grape-Growing (New York, 1924), pp. 132-36. [BACK]

55. U. P. Hedrick, History of Horticulture in America to 1860 (New York, 1950), p. 286. [BACK]

56. C. O. Cathey, "Sidney Weller," North Carolina Historical Review 31: 1-17. [BACK]

57. Cultivator 8 (September 1841): 151. [BACK]

58. American Agriculturist 7 (1848): 58-60. [BACK]

59. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1853, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1854), pp. 306-9. [BACK]

60. Cozzens' Wine Press 4 (20 April 1858): 186. [BACK]

61. See p. 415 below. [BACK]

62. According to the sixth U.S. census. [BACK]

63. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1849, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1850), pp. 283-86. [BACK]

64. See Clarence Gohdes, Scuppernong: North Carolina's Grape and Its Wines (Durham, N.C., 1982), pp. 19-22. [BACK]

65. Joseph Togno, Southern Cultivator 11 (1853): 298. [BACK]

66. Western Horticultural Review 3 (1852- 53): 479. [BACK]

67. Thomas Ruffin, Papers of Thomas Ruffin , ed. J. G. deR. Hamilton (Raleigh, N.C., 1918-20), 3:98. [BACK]

68. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1859, Part II , p. 54o. [BACK]

69. J. C. W. McDonnald's interest went back to 1825, when he had petitioned the state legislature to support a scheme to import Italian vineyard workers: see p. 153 above. He had 110 acres of vines in 1860 ( Southern Cultivator 18 [1860]: 381). [BACK]

70. Horticultural Review 4 (1854): 59-60. [BACK]

71. See The Private Journal of Henry William Ravenel, 1859-1887 , ed. Arney Robinson Childs (Columbia, S.C., 1947), pp. 19, 25, 31, 86, 87. [BACK]

72. DeBow's Review , n.s., 2 (1866): 269. [BACK]

73. Achille de Caradeuc, Grape Culture and Winemaking in the South (Augusta, Ga., 1858), p. 6. [BACK]

74. South Carolina Historical Magazine 49 (1949): 95. [BACK]

75. For the details of this paragraph and the next, see James C. Bonner, "The Georgia Wine Industry on the Eve of the Civil War," Georgia Historical Quarterly 41 (1957): 19-30. [BACK]

76. Report of the Commissioner of Patents, 1858, Part II (Washington, D.C., 1859), p. 372. [BACK]

77. American Agriculturist 19 (June 1860): 186.

78. Ibid., p. 186. [BACK]

77. American Agriculturist 19 (June 1860): 186.

78. Ibid., p. 186. [BACK]

79. Southern Planter 20 (June 1860): 383. [BACK]

80. The names of European wine types were also freely used; no one, however, seems to have thought that they should be permanently used. [BACK]

81. Southern Planter 20: 383. [BACK]

82. Proceedings of the Southern Vine Growers' Convention, Aiken, South Carolina, 1860 (Augusta, Ga., 1860), p. 11. [BACK]

83. Bureau of the Census, Agriculture of the United States in 1860 (Washington, D.C., 1864), p. 28; Compendium of the Ninth Census (June 1, 1870) (Washington, D.C., 1872), p. 704. [BACK]

84. Bonner, "The Georgia Wine Industry on the Eve of the Civil War," p. 28n. [BACK]

85. Ben H. McClary and LeRoy P. Graf, "'Vineland' in Tennessee, 1852: The Journal of Rosine Parmentier," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications , no. 31 (1959), PP. 95-111. For a contemporary reference, see American Farmer , n.s., 14 (November 1858): 152-54. [BACK]

86. Horticultural Review 4 (1854): 311-12. A far earlier pioneer had been Dr. Felix Robertson, who planted ten acres of native vines in Tennessee in 1810 but gave up around 1820 ( Southern Cultivator 15 [1857]: 96-97). [BACK]

87. Cozzens' Wine Press 3 (20 January 1857): 60. [BACK]

88. The Autobiography of Mark Twain , ed. Charles Neider (New York, 1959), pp. 18, 218. [BACK]

89. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers 30 (1859): 203.

90. Ibid., p. 206. [BACK]

89. United Kingdom, Parliamentary Papers 30 (1859): 203.

90. Ibid., p. 206. [BACK]

91. The great seal of the state of Connecticut exhibits fruit-laden grapevines under the motto

of "Sustinet Qui Transtulit"—roughly, "Who transplants, sustains." The viticulture in question is wholly symbolic, though real vineyards are now being planted in the state. [BACK]


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