PREFACE. Vll 



straw. The first of these may be probably culti- 

 vated to advantage in Georgia and the Floridas. 

 The silk worm is already in promising favour 

 among us, and little doubt, I believe, is enter- 

 tained of the ultimate success of this branch of 

 industry. From the Leghorn straw we have less 

 perhaps to hope, as the labour required in the 

 manufacture of the article is too heavy a compo- 

 nent, to promise an advantageous result in our 

 sparse population. It is a cultivation moreover 

 which has resisted the efforts of France, and foil- 

 ed the skill of her judicious agriculturalists. The 

 patrimony of St. Peter haslong abandoned the hope 

 of introducing, it into the States of the Church, 

 as it is a plant, it would seem, peculiar to the Ap- 

 penines. But the vine is found through most of 

 the countries of Europe, from the thirty-sixth to 

 the fiftieth degree of latitude, in the various 

 grades and qualities springing from their va- 

 rious climates, soils, exposures, and positions, 

 affording the flattering expectations that the paral- 

 lel advantages of our own country will even- 

 tually produce their similar results, both as to the 

 plant and the vintage. 



We have greater reasons to indulge in such 

 hopes than they who have preceded us, as we 

 have the benefit of their skill and experience, 

 their observations and writings. Let us, there- 

 fore, at least make the experiment, in the confi- 

 dence that though gathered into the service at 

 the eleventh hour, the Lord of the vineyard will 

 smile on the work, and, crown our efforts with 

 the like rewards, so liberally extended to those 

 who have borne the heat and burden of the day. 



