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Initially proposed by Peter Legaux at a meeting of the American Philosophical Society in 1793, the Vine Company of Pennsylvania was a stock company that encouraged the domestic production of grapes, wines, and brandy, and dissemination of knowledge about viticulture. After its incorporation in 1802, the Company operated vineyards on Legaux's farm at Spring Mill, 13 miles northwest of Philadelphia, until it failed in 1822. The three volumes of Journals of the Vine Company of Pennsylvania record the daily operations of America's first commercial vineyard bewteeen 1803 and 1814. Kept by the superintendent, Peter Legaux, the journals provide careful records of weather, planting, harvesting and other field work, as well as some of the doings of the officers and shareholders of the Company. The fourth volume is essentially a weather diary kept by Legaux at Spring Mill from 1822 until his death in 1827. The last volume of Vine Company records covering the last eight years of its operation, 1814-1822, has been lost.
