SOUTH CAROLINA 185 



gave up vine-culture, saying that he could find a better 

 use for his land. Another resident of South Carolina, 

 by the name of Thorpe, planted a vineyard 30 miles 

 from Charleston, under the oversight of a Portuguese, 

 whom he had brought in for the purpose. He also 

 received premiums on 3 pipes of wine; but after his 

 death his heirs likewise gave over any further at- 

 tempts, using the land in some other way. Later, 

 there were other attempts made, in a region called 

 Long Canes, 200 miles from Charleston, and good 

 samples of wine were produced. All those European 

 vines raised in and about towns, as at Philadelphia, 

 Newyork &c, do very well and bear many good 

 grapes. From all the circumstances it is sufficiently 

 clear that America might be a wine-country. But the 

 reason why vineyards have not been set and vine-cul- 

 ture taken up by the farmer generally is the great 

 labor which the tending of the vines requires, and the 

 time that must go by before there is a profit. The 

 American farmer has grown accustomed, after little 

 and easy work, to have in hand his immediate or yearly 

 gains ; his wheat and his cattle do this for him ; where- 

 as a vineyard, from its first establishment, hardly 

 yields a fair profit in 6-j years. A number of insuffi- 

 cient reasons have been brought forward to show that 

 America is absolutely ill-suited for vine-culture, but 

 similar statements might be made of vine-countries 

 elsewhere just as in general the experiments above 

 described prove nothing more than that work, and pre- 

 liminary expence and oversight were dreaded. I will, 

 however, repeat here all the objections made to vine- 

 culture in America ; these may be useful in supple- 

 menting and correcting the observations of others. 

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