80 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



acres of land! From 114 acres during the season of 1845t 

 more than 23,000 gallons of wine were manufactured, and 

 there was not more than half a crop obtained in that sea 

 son. The average yield of wine per acre, for five years 

 in succession, is stated to be from 450 to 500 gallons per 

 annum. 



Many think the culture of the grape will be the finishing 

 stroke to the temperance enterprise ; affording a whole 

 some beverage from our hills in place of &quot; corn juice &quot; from 

 our bottoms, and beer from our hop and barley fields. 



The arguments urged by some with great sincerity, 

 are the often-quoted facts, that the inhabitants of wine- 

 making countries are favorably distinguished for temper 

 ance ; and that a palatable and wholesome beverage pure 

 wine would supersede the use of violent liquors. If we 

 thought that our people would become temperate upon 

 such conditions, we should be glad to see a vineyard on 

 every hillside, and a wine-vat to every farmhouse. But 

 there is no reason to expect any such result. Vineyards in 

 Europe exist among a quiet, comparatively unenterprising 

 peasantry. They have been trained to moderation ; neces 

 sity has made them temperate in all things in food, in 

 dress, in expense, and in drink. The popular habits are not 

 so excitable as with us; business runs in quiet streams, 

 and politics are unknown. With us, business is boisterous, 

 pleasure obstreperous, and politics outrageous. Our peo 

 ple are anything but quiet ; they are hot, hot in tongue and 

 blood. It is wide enough of the mark to suppose that the 

 same cause existing among two entirely dissimilar people, 

 would, of course, produce the same results. We might as 

 well say that vineyards would make our people eat less meat, 

 less corn and pork, because the residents of wine districts 

 were known to be addicted to a vegetable diet. The pro- , 

 bable consequences of abundant cheap wine must be 

 judged, not by what would happen in France, among 

 abstemious peasants, nor on the Rhine, among economical 



