98 CULTIVATION OP THE 



minished quantity of wood now annually sent 

 from Cape May to our market, have affected thff 

 southern section of New Jersey, and interest 

 each member of her community in the adoption 

 of a substitute which may avert the evils of such 

 a change. Her land has fallen in value, labour 

 diminished in price, and the operative, not less 

 than the proprietor, suffers a correspondent re- 

 duction of revenue. The remedy however is at 

 hand, and in the cultivation of the vine, the peo- 

 ple of that country may. find an indemnity for 

 the loss of the market of Philadelphia, for the 

 productions of their forests, nay more. From 

 what I have seen in Europe of the profits of the 

 vintage, it would not excite in me the least sur- 

 prise, if in the successful cultivation of the vine, 

 the inhabitants of that country shall find not 

 merely an indemnity for the depreciation in the 

 value of their timber, but an annual revenue 

 from each acre of vineland which shall equal the 

 capital, for which in their prosperous day they 

 sold the fee simple of an acre of woodland. 



A strong argument in favour of the introduc^ 

 tion of the vine in that country is, that it has al- 

 ready been tried there, and ripened its fruit. It 

 is true it was to a limited extent, but I well re- 

 collect that some twenty years ago, I sent to 

 that country the cuttings of several varieties of 

 the foreign grape, which ripened their fruit as 

 well as in the protected atmosphere of Philadel- 

 phia. Some of these were the black Hamburg, 

 a most delicate fruit, and the complete success 

 which attended the whole progress to maturity 

 of this sensitive exotic, cannot fail to infuse into 



