94 CULTIVATION OP THE 



the vine, it becomes an interesting question at 

 the outset of the experiment to consider, what 

 are the particular species of the plant, on which 

 may reasonably rest our strongest hopes of suc- 

 cess? It is a question involved in doubt, and 

 susceptible of as much speculation as there are 

 different aspects of position and varieties of 

 soil. 



We have at command three several points at 

 which we may commence an experimental culti- 

 vation, namely the foreign vine (vitis vinifera,) 

 the domestic grape (vitis sylvestris) and the seed- 

 ling plant. 



Preliminary to an introduction of the first, the 

 foreign vine, two considerations deserve atten- 

 tion, to wit: the experience of the few cultivators 

 who opened, as pioneers, the untravelled path, 

 and form at this day the vanguard of the cultiva- 

 tion, and that deducible from the parallel circum- 

 stances of the same soil, a like exposure and 

 climate, in the different vine countries of Europe. 

 In the former, affording information so limited, 

 we have yet the important fact that the vine can 

 be successfully cultivated in the United States, 

 and though I readily admit the slender reliance 

 due to a source of information so doubtful as that 

 of the latter, I consider it important to an experi- 

 mental course, and that a race of facts shall be 

 the peculiar offspring of American soil and cul- 

 tivation. In reflecting on the character of the 

 foreign vine and its productions, it cannot have 

 escaped our observation, that of the various wines 

 imported into the United States, those produced 

 near the ocean, whether at the Cape of Good 



