THB 



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. V. 



AUGUST, 1850. 



No. 2. 



To sit under our own vine and fig tree, with 

 no one to make us afraid, is the most ancient 

 and sacred idea of a life of security, content- 

 ment and peace. In a national sense, we 

 think we may begin to lay claim to this spe- 

 cies of comfort, so largely prized by our an- 

 cestors of the patriarchal ages. The southern 

 states have long boasted their groves and 

 gardens of fig trees ; and there is no longer 

 any doubt regarding the fact, that the valley 

 of the Ohio, with its vine-clad hills, will soon 

 afi"ord a resting place for millions of cultiva- 

 tors, who may sit down beneath the shadow 

 of their own vinos, with none to make them 

 afraid. 



There has been so much " stufi"," of all de- 

 scriptions, made in various parts of the coun- 

 try under the name of domestic wine — ninety- 

 nine hundreths of which is not half so good 

 or so wholesome as poor cider — that most 

 persons whose palates are accustomed to the 

 fine products of France, Spain or Madeira, 

 have, after tasting of the compounds alluded 

 to, concluded that it was either a poor piece 

 of patriotism, or a bad joke, — this trying to 

 swallow American wine. 



On the other hand, various enterprising 

 Frenchmen, observing that the climate of a 

 large part of the Union ripened peaches and 

 other fruits better than that of their own 



Vol. v. 4 



country, naturally concluded that if they 

 brought over the right kinds of French wine 

 grapes, wine must be produced here as good 

 as that made at home. Yet, though the ex- 

 periment has been tried again and again by 

 practical vignerons, who know the mysteries 

 of cultivation, and wine merchants who had 

 an abundance of capital at their command, 

 there is no record of one single case of even 

 tolerable success. In no part of the United 

 States is the climate adapted to the vineyard 

 culture of the foreign grape. 



So much as this was learned, indeed, twenty 

 years ago. But was the matter to be given 

 up in this manner ? Could it be possible 

 tliat a vast continent, over which from one 

 end to the other, the wild grape grows in such 

 abundance that the Northmen, who were per- 

 haps the first discoverers, gave it the beauti- 

 ful name of Vinland, should never be the 

 land of vineyards ? There were at least two 

 men who still believed wine-making possible ; 

 and who, twenty years or more ago, noticing 

 that the foreign grape proved worthless in 

 this country, had faith in the good qualities 

 of the indigenous stock. 



We mean, of course, Major Adlum, of the 

 District of Columbia, and NICHOLAS LoNG- 

 WORTH, Esq., of Ohio. Both these gentle- 

 men, after testing the foreign grape, aban- 



