mpt to establish a vineyard in the British North American Colonies
was by the London Company in Virginia, about the year 1620; and by
1630, the prospect seems to have been encouraging enough to warrant the
importation of several French vine-dressers, who, it is said, ruined
the vines by bad treatment. Wine was also made in Virginia in 1647, and
in 1651 premiums were offered for its production. BEVERLY even
mentions, that prior to 1722, there were vineyards in that colony,
producing seven hundred and fifty gallons per year. In 1664, Colonel
RICHARD NICOLL, Governor of New York, granted to PAUL RICHARDS, a
privilege of making and selling wine free of all duty, he having been
the first to enter upon the cultivation of the vine on a large scale.
BEAUCHAMP PLANTAGENET, in his description of the province of New
Albion, published in London, in 1648, states "that the English settlers
in Uvedale, now Delaware, had vines running on mulberry and sassafras
trees; and enumerates four kinds of grapes, namely: Thoulouse Muscat,
Sweet Scented, Great Fox, and Thick Grape; the first two, after five
months, being boiled and salted and well fined, make a strong red
Xeres; the third, a light claret; the fourth, a white grape which
creeps on the land, makes a pure, gold colored wine. TENNIS PALE, a
Frenchman, out of these four, made eight sorts of excellent wine; and
says of the Muscat, after it had been long boiled, that the second
draught will intoxicate after four months old; and that here may be
gathered and made two hundred tuns in the vintage months, and that the
vines with good cultivation will mend." In 1633, WILLIAM PENN attempted
to establish a vineyard near Philadelphia, but without success. After
some years, however, Mr. TASKER, of Maryland, and Mr. ANTIL, of
Shrewsbury, N.J., seem to have succeeded to a certain extent. It seems,
however, from an article which Mr. ANTIL wrote of the culture of the
grape, and the manufacture of wine, that he cultivated only foreign
varieties.

In 1796, the French settlers in Illinois made one hundred and ten
hogsheads of strong wine from native grapes. At Harmony, near
Pittsburgh, a vineyard of ten acres was planted by FREDERIC RAPP, and
his associates from Germany; and they continued to cultivate grapes and
silk, after their removal to another Harmony in Indiana.

In 1790, a Swiss colony was founded, and a fund of ten thousand dollars
raised in Jessamine county, Kentucky, for the purpose of esta