Good Grape Wine Company

May 1 2006

The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide

From Pages 10, 11, & 12 of the Preface to the book, The American Vine-Dresser’s Guide published in 1826—the first book in America on the cultivation of grapes and wine by John James Dufour.

The fail­ure of the first plantation causeda relaxation among shareholders, and not only a great difficulty wasexperienced in collecting the subscribed money, but the subscrip­tion of allthe shares was never performed, so that all our stock was made use of, forpaying the hiring of (labor) and other hands, and we were never able topurchase a single share or even to pay for the land: then the whole burden ofthe establishment rested on our family, who kept good courage, for we had begunanew, with the Cape and Madeira grapes, of which we had so few at first, thatit required several years to have enough of them; although we used greatindustry to multiply them; thus we went on until 1806, when I was obliged to goback to Europe, and our family parted. My two young brothers, who triedto keep the place, found themselves too weak to support it; and one frostyspring having took all their crop; and know­ing that those of the colony, whohad begun in 1802 on the borders of the Ohio, were successful & hadsuffered nothing by the frost, they abandoned the place to an American ten­ant,who supposed we had a bad title to the land, obtained a new warrant, and becameowner by a patent, & let all the vines go to destruction.

At my return, which was in 1816, an accountof the war which prevented my coming soon­er, I found the vineyard grown upwith briars, and I had to have recourse to law, to have the intruder ejected.Now let us see the difference, if we had punctually fol­lowed the plan, andbegan first by the collection of the $8000, and the purchase of 5 families of(laborers) for five thousand dollars, we could then have had from 15 to 20head, big, and small, I could certainly have procured by our joint labor,enough to support us all, after the second year, besides planting as many vinesas we would have done; and al­though the first planting had failed, we wouldsurely, in 9 or 10 years, have at least 20 acres of bearing vines of the Capegrapes, which, at the average of 180 gallons per acre, as that is the producton the Ohio, would give about 15 gal­lons per share, besides paying what wascoming to me. The wine then fetched $2 per gallon, and the vineyard would havebeen yearly increasing. By this time, with only common good luck among theeslaves, there could be at least thirty able hands of both sexes, besides agreat many youngsters, with whom I could tend 100 acres of vineyards, besideraising enough for the support of all, at 180 gallons per acre, would give 85gallons per share, worth as many dollars besides my reserve: and the capitalstock would be worth about tenfold.

Those who doubt the aforesaid calculation,have only to come and see our vineyards and vintage on the Ohio, and calculatefor them­selves. If by chance myopinion differs from others—or I should express some original ideas, I shallnot enter into contradictory arguments: as I do not pretend to infallibility, Isubmit all to the judgment of candid readers, who however are respectfullyrequested, to postpone, pronoun­cing, until experimental trials have beenconsulted, as well as the grand book of nature, from which most all I have tosay has been taken, for want of other books, and even, if I had them, among themany I have read on the culture of the vine, but few could be quoted, for nonehad the least idea of what a new country is. I had the loan of Chaptal and Adlum for a few days, and I own Rozier,Peechely and Coxe, to all of whom I have made some few references, of factsunknown to me before, or when I had to say the same thing. Peechely, an Englishauthor on the cultivation of vines, in hot houses in England, where they canget no good grapes out of doors, studied the vines by handling them himself,and not in books; and has made several remarks on their nature in England, as Ihave done in Switzerland and in America, the author I would have quoted often,had I his book it would be the OLIVER De Serre, who was with propriety calledby the French authors the father of agriculture; because, all those who havewritten after him, on that science, have chiefly been his copyists, but it ismore than ten years since I have seen his "Theatra"of agriculture: although it has been lately reprinted in its original oldFrench, by Lasterie, or was intendedto be reprinted, when I left Europe last.

J. J. DUFOUR.

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