AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS AND RURAL ECONOMY. 73 



no one has, to this day, in any part of the United States, been successful in obtaining even 

 a tolerable vineyard from any foreign grape.* Thousands of individuals have tried it, on 

 a small scale, in various parts of the Union ; and several persons — as, for example, Mr. 

 Loubat, Mr. Longworth, &c, of great experience abroad or knowledge at home, joined to 

 abundant capital — have tried it on a large scale. The result, in every case, has been the 

 same : a season or two of promise, then utter failure, and finally complete abandonment 

 of the theory. The only vineyards ever successful in America are those of American 

 grapes. We might add here that one foreign grape has been successfully acclimated here, 

 and only one. The "Traminer," from the Rheingau, a small-berried vine, has been per- 

 suaded to thrive here, by Mr. Longworth. But this, for the manufacture of wine, is 

 almost valueless. Nor has one of the hundreds of nurserymen and amateurs who have 

 been, and still are, industriously striving to obtain new seedling varieties, yet produced 

 one which has been sufficiently valuable in all respects to come into general cultivation. 



While the attempt to introduce the culture of the grape was maintaining a doubtful con- 

 flict with apparently insurmountable obstacles, it received the timely aid of Mr. Long- 

 worth, of Cincinnati, who, after spending more than one small fortune in fruitless attempts 

 to introduce the foreign vine and vine-dressers, obtained and proved the value of the 

 Catawba Grape, which now constitutes nine-tenths of the vineyards cultivated in the West. 

 This is a native grape, obtained from the mountains of North Carolina. In the manufac- 

 ture of wine, Mr. Longworth has rendered to the country no less signal service ; for, with- 

 out any experience to guide him which was adapted to our new circumstances, a multi- 

 tude of vexatious disappointments and losses were met and overcome. Even after years 

 of successful manufacture, a year or two since, through some untoward circumstance, he 

 lost by bursting, in a single season, thirty-six thousand bottles, valued at one dollar per 

 bottle — enough to have ruined any ordinary fortune. No wonder then that all the vine-dress- 

 ers of the country regard Mr. L. as the father of wine-culture in the United States ; he 

 having accomplished, by his own private fortune and untiring enterprise, that which must 

 otherwise have failed or only succeeded by slow degrees. Mr. Longworth is still extending 

 his arrangements for the manufacture of his "sparkling Catawba," by building yet other 

 cellars, where the process peculiar to the manufacture of this wine may be perfected. His 

 cellars furnish this year (1855) one hundred and twenty thousand bottles of the "spark- 

 ling," and next year he expects to increase the amount to two hundred thousand bottles. 



The "still" or "dry" wines are the kind chiefly made by other cultivators; indeed no vine- 

 yard, however small the cellarage of its proprietor, seems to be without its casks of wine, but 

 the manufacture of the "sparkling" requires a deep cellar with large tuns for its fermentation. 



Great efforts are being made by the most enterprising cultivators to produce and introduce 

 new varieties of the grape, but at present none have been sufficiently tested to entitle them to 

 a very prominent place in general cultivation. Thus far the Catawba stands unrivalled. The 

 Isabella in this climate ripens its berries unequally; and the "Cape" is even being dug up as 

 not worth cultivation. Mr. Longworth, Mr. Buchanan, Dr. Mosher, and all who have tried 

 it express great hopes of the " Herbemont," and it is forming a large share in the new planta- 

 tions now being made. It is said to blossom about eight days later than the Catawba, and to 

 mature its fruit several days sooner. It is a small, nearly black berry, growing very close on 

 the cluster — very sweet, with tender pulp and thin skin, and not as liable as other varieties 

 to be affected by the "rot." 



* Of the various experiments made with regard to cultivating foreign grapes here, we will mention a few. Mr. 

 Parmentier, of Long Island, established a vineyard of foreign grapes there, and was finally compelled to abandon 

 it. M. Loubat planted forty acres at New Utrecht, L. I., with one hundred and fifty thousand imported vines, 

 and they throve not, neither did they bear. Mr. N. Longworth, of Cincinnati, also tried a variety of grapes from 

 Bordeaux and the vicinity of Paris. These he obtained from M. Loubat's vine-yard. They did not succeed. 

 From Madeira he imported six thousand vines of their best wine grapes; these were rooted up, after trial, as worth- 

 less. Lastly, he procured seven thousand vines from the Jura, and, after trial of five years, these also were 

 thrown away. The vine-dressers of Vevay, la., attempted the culture of vines from Switzerland, with no better suc- 

 cess. The imported vines planted in the early vineyards of Pennsylvania, Alabama, and Kentucky all died after 

 a few years. And yet there is not a grape of any reputation to be found in the United States (with the exception 

 of the Catawba) that is not reputed to be of foreign origin. 



