AMERICAN VINEYARDS. 



393 



plied with far greater force to such exotics 

 as have been introduced there from warmer 

 and more congenial climes, as is the case 

 with the Persian Grape. 



Where stand my countrymen ? Why, 

 let me ask, should their industry be latent 

 in this one pursuit of the Vine culture, 

 whilst the prairies are becoming surcharged 

 with grain, the cotton fields annually ex- 

 tending their area, and the bosom of the 

 earth tM-n asunder to unveil her mineral 

 riches? 



True independence consists in the pro- 

 duction from our own soil, of every article 

 necessary for the sustenance and comfort of 

 man. Why then should we pay tribute for 

 that which our country is so pre-eminently 

 calculated to afford us, and which has been 

 marked out by the Deity as one of her nat- 

 ural productions ? We already witness the 

 success of numerous vineyards in Virginia, 

 North and South Carolina, and Georgia, 

 and the successful efforts of Nicholas Long- 

 worth of Cincinnati, a man entitled to the 

 highest honors, in the establishment of ex- 

 tensive vineyards in that vicinity, which 

 already comprise 200 acres. Every where 

 around us we see the native varieties of the 

 Grape flourishing without care, and yielding 

 abundant crops, and there is an absolute 

 certainty of profitable results from the cir- 

 cumstances to which I have referred, and 

 from the immense demand which already 

 exists, and which would be enhanced by the 

 purer and cheaper product of our own soil. 

 Last, but not least, is the consideration of 

 influence the vine culture would have on 

 society. Many persons may oppose it from 

 a supposition that it would generate or in- 

 crease intemperance, when the very reverse 

 must necessarily be the result. 



To come to the rationale on this point, 

 and to the exercise of common sense in our ' 



arguments and decision ; it is an established 

 fact, that man throughout all ages and 

 among all nations, has sought out some bev- 

 erage to repair bodily exhaustion, or to 

 cheer the mind by exhiliration. The pure 

 juice of the Grape is an innocent beverage, 

 grateful to our senses and nourishing to the 

 system, and if its use in its natural state 

 would not be beneficial, it is scarcely ra- 

 tional to suppose that the Deity would have 

 scattered vines so profusely throughout our 

 country, and imparted to it the susceptibility 

 of adaptation throughout such wide-spread 

 regions. 



That man has abused and perverted its 

 use, is no argument against the article in 

 its pure and natural state, for what gift 

 of Providence is there that has not been 

 more or less abused ? 



It is sufficient for my purpose to point to 

 every country where wine is produced in 

 abundance, as the abodes of temperance, 

 and where intoxication is comparatively un- 

 known ; and then to point to the non-pro- 

 ducing countries as those where intemper- 

 ance is the appalling curse of the land. In 

 Italy, France, Spain, Greece, and Turkey, 

 where cheap wines abound, intemperance 

 is a parasite that finds naught to cherish its 

 direful expansion. But in England, Scot- 

 land, Ireland, Germany, the British Amer- 

 ican Provinces, and in our own country, in- 

 temperance stalks abroad in full noonday 

 power, and it appears by recent expositions in 

 regard to the populous cities of England, that 

 all branches of society, and even the digni- 

 taries of the church, are tainted and pollu- 

 ted by the curse of alcohol. So exempt is 

 Italy, with its almost universally vine-clad 

 hills and vales, from the use of alcohol, that 

 it is net long since a challenge was pub- 

 lished, defying any one to say that he ever 

 saw a drunken man in that country. Much 



