58 



THE VINEYARDS OF THE WEST. 



doned it, and took up the most promising 

 native sorts ; and both at last settled upon 

 the Catawba, as the only wine grape, yet 

 known, worthy of cultivation in America. 



Major Adlum planted a vineyard, and 

 made some wine, which we tasted. It was 

 of only tolerable quality ; but it proved that 

 good wine can be made of native grapes, 

 the growth of our own soil. And though 

 Adlum was not a thorough cultivator, he 

 published a volume on the culture of native 

 grapes, which roused public attention to the 

 subject. He made the assertion before he 

 died, that in introducing the Catawba grape 

 to public attention, he had done more for the 

 benefit of the country than if he had paid oiT 

 our then existing national debt. And to this 

 sentiment there are many in the western 

 states who are ready now to subscribe heartily. 



Mr. LoNGAVORTH is a man of diflPerent 

 stamp. With abundant capital, a great deal 

 of patriotism, and a large love of the culture 

 of the soil, he adds an especial talent for over- 

 coming obstacles, and great pertinacity in 

 carrying his point. What he cannot do him- 

 self, he very well knows how to find other 

 persons capable of doing. Hence he pursued 

 quite the opposite system from those who un- 

 dertook the naturalization of the foreign 

 grape. He advertised for native grapes of 

 any and every sort, planted all and tested all ; 

 and at last, he too has come to the conclusion 

 that the Catawba is the. wine grape of America. 



"What sort of wine does the Catawba 

 make ? " inquires some of our readers, who 

 like nothing but Madeira and Sherry ; " and 

 what do you think will be the moral effect of 

 making an abundance of cheap wine ? " asks 

 some ultra temperance friend and reader. 

 We will try to answer both of these questions. 



The natural wine which the Catawba makes 

 is a genuine hock — a wine so much like the 

 ordinary wines of the Rhine, that we could 

 put three of the former bottles among a dozen 



of the latter, and it would puzzle the nicest 

 connoisseur to select them by either colour or 

 flavor. In other words, the Catawba wine 

 (made as it is on the Ohio, without adding 

 either alcohol or sugar,) is a pleasant light 

 hock, — a little stronger than Rhine wine, but 

 still far lighter and purer than nineteen- 

 twentieths of the wines that find their way to 

 this country. Its subacid flavor renders it 

 especially grateful, as a summer drink, in so 

 hot a climate as ours ; and the wholesome- 

 ness of the Rhine wine no one will den}-.* 

 Indeed, certain maladies, troublesome enough 

 in other lands, are never known in hock 

 countries ; and though the taste for hock — 

 like that for tomatoes — is an acquu-ed one, it 

 is none the less natural for that ; any more 

 than walking is, which, so far as our obser- 

 vation goes, is not one of the things we come 

 into the world vrith, like seeing an^l hearing. 



As to the temperance view of this matter 

 of wine-making, we think a very little fami- 

 liarity with the state of the case will settle 

 this point. Indeed, we are inclined to adopt 

 the views of Dr. Flagg, of Cincinnati. 

 "• The temperance cause is rapidly preparing 

 public sentiment for the introduction of pure 

 American wine. So long as public taste re- 

 mains vitiated by the use of malt and alco- 

 holic drinks, it will be impossible to introduce 

 light pleasant wine, except to a very limited 

 extent; but just in proportion as strong 

 drinks ax-e abandoned, a more wholesome one 

 will be substituted. Instead of paying mill- 

 ions to foreigners for deleterious drinks, let 

 us produce from our own hillsides a whole- 

 some beverage, that will be within reach of 

 us all — the poor as well as the rich." 



Very few of the friends of temperance are 

 perhaps aware of two facts. First, that j)vre 

 light wines, such as the Catawba of this coun- 

 try, and the Hock and Clarets of Europe, 



* Mr. I.ONGWORTH i.s HOW makiiio- larse quantities of spail: 

 ling Catawba wine, of excellent quality— perhaps more nearly 

 resembling sparkling hock tlian Cliampagne. 



