427 



Delaware, &c. The wine from the Isabella, it is declared, is well received and 

 i'avorably noticed by connoisseurs, and an interest is awakened for progress and 

 improvement in this new industry which will not permit wine-makers to rest 

 satisfied either with the c[uality or quantity of product. Mr. Young writes as 

 follows : 



" Some twenty-five or thirty years ago, as nearly as I can understand, between 

 the years 1835 and 1840, the idea appears to have occurred to an American 

 gentleman, Mr. Thomas Messiter, then residing in this province, tliat the culture 

 of the grape for the manufacture of a native wine might be attended with con- 

 siderable pecuniary advantages to any one possessed of sufficient energy to engage 

 in it, the climate, in his judgment, possessing to a degree the requisites for 

 the successful growth of the vine, and in many respects bearing a close resemblance 

 to that of Georgia. Following out this idea, about the time above mentioned... 

 he succeeded in procuring from the United States a few slips or cuttings of the- 

 Isabella grape, and, planting tliem in his garden, watched with much assiduity- 

 and interest their progress towards maturity. But a brief period was required ■( 

 to prove fully to him that the climate not only admitted of its culture, but that., 

 its qualities as to fruit-bearing, &c., had vastly increased and improved^', 

 the flavor of the specimens taken from his plantations being much superior to . 

 that of the same grape produced by the vines of the United States. 



"Priding himself on the success attending his experiment, he refused to- listen ■ 

 to any of the numerous overtures made to him from neighbors and friends, or 

 the equally numerous off'ers of purchase for cuttings, from his vines ; and although 

 I cannot state positively whether he now endeavored to carry out what was no ■ 

 doubt his original intention, viz., the manufacture of wine, yet it is certain 

 that he derived considerable benefit from the sale of the fruit, and many amus- 

 ing anecdotes are extant and related of the tenacity with which he endeavored 

 to retain the cultivation in his own possession, even going the lengthy it is said, 

 of placing his servants as guards over the place of their cultivation, lest cuttings 

 might be obtained notwithstanding his dissent. Finally, however, some of these 

 cuttings found their way into other plantations than his own, and gradually' 

 may be said to have overspread the whole province, affording a delicious fruit 

 at so cheap a rate as to be within the reach of the poorest, and at the same time 

 giving rise to a new and well-remunerated employment in the manufacturing of 

 the native wine. En passant, I may say that some samples of this wine which: 

 have come under my notice appear to quite equal, if not to excel, some of the 

 highly-priced wines sold as Bordeaux. So prolific have been those few slip* 

 introduced by Mr. Messiter, and to such an extent have they reproduced them- 

 selves, that grapes may be had here in the market during the season for about a 

 cent a pound, and a small German colony, known as the colony of Leopolde, 

 numbering 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants, has manufactured as much as 500 pipes 

 of this native wine during the last year. 



"Another thing may be observed as worthy of remark in the growth of the 

 vine here ; that is, the enormous size some of its main trunks attain. I think I 

 do not exaggerate in placing the circumference of some I have seen at fifteen to 

 twenty inches. 



"It is to me an interesting question, whether slips from the improved vine here 

 would not improve the Isabella in the States; for most certainly no such fruit, 

 for deliciousness is known there." 



The consul promises to give some facts concerning the mandioca or farinha^ 

 and the crva mati, and reports a prolific yield of tobacco in that province ; 

 one little German settlement, Santa Cruz, producing four million pounds, worth 

 a quarter of a million of dollars. 



