26 OPEN AIR GEAPE CULTURE. 



A Swiss colony settled about 1790 in Jessamin 

 county, Kentucky, and raised a fund of ten thousand 

 dollars for the express purpose of forming a vineyard. 

 Their first attempts failed, they having cultivated the 

 foreign vine. In 1801, they removed to a spot which 

 they called Yevay, in Switzerland County, Indiana, 

 on the Ohio River, forty-five miles below Cincinnati. 

 Here they planted native vines and met with some 

 success. But, after forty years' experience, they con- 

 sider our climate and soil inferior to those of Switzer- 

 land, as they claim that they can there make a gallon 

 of wine from ten pounds of grapes while here twelve 

 pounds are required. Their vineyards have now r , we 

 believe, nearly disappeared. 



But the great turning point of vine culture in 

 America was when the Catawba grape was intro- 

 duced by Major Adlurn, of Georgetown, D. C., who 

 considered that in so doing he conferred a greater be- 

 nefit upon the American nation than he would have 

 done by paying off the national debt. 



"We could have wished to give an accurate view of 

 the present state of the vine culture of this country, 

 but the best works which we have been able to con- 

 sult are very imperfect in this respect, and we believe 

 that we have examined all the more important ones. 

 "Want of time has prevented ns from instituting a 

 special correspondence on this subject. We can 



