289 ^ 



The fruit garden, the vineyard, and the orchard, take other and longer 

 steps in the illustration of our theme. In money-profit, too, these pay 

 much better than the balance of the farm ; and in the family, as cheap 

 luxuries, delicious food, acceptable medicines, prophylactic agents, and 

 reliable substitutes for other articles in common use, ripe fruit is truly 

 invaluable. But the influence of a more general production of certain 

 fruits, for the manufacture of wine and cider, is more properly under 

 consideration. 



Cider can be made far superior in flavor to all the mixtures, sold as wine, 

 and most of the ordinary importations ; and yet, neither intoxicate, nor 

 derange the digestive organs of those who drink it. 



I have known dyspeptics drink really fine cider with great relish, and 

 most satisfactory results ; while at the same time, a glass of ordinary 

 wine would be almost certain to cause prolonged misery, and alcoholic 

 liquors (seldom taken) have no good eff'ect whatever. 



It has been proved that good wines can be grown at home, cheaper 

 than any, of equal quality, can be imported ; and it is by no means set- 

 tled, that we cannot produce wines in the United States as cheap as they 

 can in France and Germany. The difference in the price of labor is the 

 only thing against it ; and the contrivances of Yankee ingenuity will help 

 to overcome that, and, the difficulty of adapting or naturalizing wine 

 grapes to soil and climate will be got over by the production of new vari- 

 eties suited to the locality. 



Taste in wines is somewhat arbitrary, and the growth of habit ; but 

 those who are accustomed to our pure American wines prefer them to any 

 others ; and for my part, I consider the Dry Catawba one of the most 

 delicious of wines, and one of the least liable to produce bad eS"ects upon 

 the stomach or the brain. Indeed, like cider, the little alcohol, which 

 these light wines may yield to distillation, exists in such a state of com- 

 bination with the natural elements of the fruit, that a healthful exhilara- 

 tion, rather than alcoholic stimulation, or intoxication, is produced by its 

 introduction into the system ; and then, it is well known to chemists, that 

 wine of this kind is free from those deadly poisons, which may be ob- 

 tained, as proximate principles, from the rum and whiskey of commerce, 

 especially the latter, which contains half a dozen or more of these prin- 

 ciples, more or less deadly in their nature, apart from the alcohol for 

 which the whiskey is drank. 



I shall not say a word on the ruinous and destructive use of alcohol. 



