CULTIVATION OF THE GRAPE. 



through some untoward circumstances 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 vinedressers 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 suc- 

 ceeded by slow degrees. Mr. Longworth is still extending his arrangements for the 

 manufacture of his "sparkling Catawba" by building yet other cellars where the pro- 

 cess peculiar to the manufacture of this wine may be perfected. His cellars furnish 

 this year one hundred and twenty thousand bottles of the ''Sparkling," 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 vineyard, 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 that 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 

 plantations 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 "roi." 



The most approved method of preparing the ground for a vineyard is by 

 trenching with the spade two to three feet in depth during the fall and winter pre- 

 vious to planting. 



Cuttings are mostly used and are by many preferred to roots even at the same 

 price. The argument in their favor being that the roots which are produced from 

 the foot of the cutting when once disturbed will not readily grow again and these lowest 

 roots are for the grape admitted to be the most important. The cuttings are planted 

 two in a hill in the place where they are intended to remain and if both grow one is 

 cut off or removed to fill vacancies. The usual distance being about three by six 

 feet apai-t. 



The cost of trenching a vineyard varies with the nature of the soil, the amount of 

 stone encountered in the subsoil and the amount of under draining, from sixty to 

 two hundred dollars per acre — and the planting including the cost of cuttings from 

 fifteen to twenty dollars more. 



The labor required during the first three years is very slight; thorough hoeing two 

 or three times in a season and spring and summer pruning is all that is necessary. 

 In the second year the vineyard is supplied with stakes, usually of good white oak 



