AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 75 



with this, that the cultivator may rely with much certainty on 400 gallons per acre, after two 

 years, provided the vineyard is well cultivated and planted. 

 The following table gives the cost and profit of production: — 



Interest at 7 per cent, on a vineyard of six acres, as above $ 158.90 



Cost of attendance and culture 360.00 



Taxes 10.00 



Cost of making wine 150.00 



Contingencies for machinery, tools, etc 50.00 



Cost of crop 828.90 



Average product 2400 galls. 



price : 2,400.00' 



Nett profit 1,512.10 



Profit in investment, when wine is $1. per gal 70 per cent. 



" « " 75 cents " 40 " 



« « « 50 " " 16 " 



It thus appears that while the vine is unaffected by any great increase of insects, parasites, 

 or other causes of blight, the grape may here be cultivated at a large profit, even when the 

 wine is reduced to fifty cents per gallon. But such is the demand for pure Catawba wine, 

 and such is the consumption of wine in this country, that it is safe to say that in full thirty 

 years to come wine cannot be reduced to fifty cents a gallon. In all that time the good culti- 

 vators must realize heavy profits. It is true that now and then, as in the drought of 1854, 

 there will be a failure almost of the grape ; but the heavy crop of another year will more 

 than bring up the average. 



There must be five millions of acres planted in vines before the price can be reduced to a minimum 

 in the United States. This fact is enough to insure cultivators against any hazard of an over- 

 stocked market. There will probably be 600,000 gallons of Catawba wine raised in the Ohio 

 Valley in 1855; but this is nothing to the demand. If it were doubled (which cannot be) 

 every year for five years to come, the market would not be overstocked. 



An experienced cultivator of the vine in Kentucky writes as follows : — 



Wine can be made as cheap in Kentucky as it is in France or Germany ; it can be made as 

 cheap as cider, and at fifteen cents per gallon it will pay better than any of our staple pro- 

 ductions. And now for the proof : Say that an acre of vines will average 400 gallons. 400 

 gallons of wine, at fifteen cents, is $60. An acre of our best land in hemp will average six 

 hundredweight. 600 weight of hemp, at $5, is $30. Leaving a balance in favor of the vine- 

 yard, $30, or 100 per cent. One acre of corn will average fifty bushels, worth thirty cents per 

 bushel. 50 bushels, at thirty cents, is $15. Leaving balance in favor of the vineyard, $45. 

 The expenses of establishing a vineyard will be balanced by the cost of seeds of hemp and 

 corn sown annually, making all things equal in that respect. The tillage of the vineyard and 

 making wine is not so laborious nor near so expensive per acre as the tillage and labor of 

 securing the products of an acre of corn or hemp. If we could get one dollar per gallon for 

 wine when ready for market, or fifty cents per gallon from the press, what a source of wealth 

 it would be ! Set it down at half these figures, and the gold-mines of California would be 

 poor in comparison. Only to think that 100 acres in vineyard, the products at fifty cents per 

 gallon, amounts to $20,000 per annum! A man having five acres, which he could manage 

 himself, would find them more profitable than a Kentucky farm of two hundred acres, with 

 three negroes to cultivate it. 



Let us turn from these pleasing prospects for Kentucky, and look at the annual income 

 France derives from the poorest and (for other purposes) the most worthless of her lands. 



The actual returns from the departments of France show a grand total of about 924,000,000 

 of gallons as the yearly produce, of which, in round numbers, about 24,000,000 of gallons 

 are exported. It is impossible to estimate the value of these wines, so various are the quali- 

 ties and prices ; the vintage of a favorite year, in some districts, will command double and 

 triple the price of those preceding or succeeding. Estimating the entire crop at fifteen cents 

 the gallon, however, we find the net amount reaches the not inconsiderable total of $138,600,000. 

 One hundred and thirty-eight millions six hundred thousand dollars ! And this from wine 

 at five cents a bottle ! A sum more than sufficient to pay off our national debt, or purchase 

 Cuba, or buy a large piece of South America, perhaps enough to include the Amazon ; and 



