EXPERIMENTS IN GEORGIA 15 



or fourteen Foot, as near as I could judge. From 

 these he has raised more than a Hundred, which he 

 has planted all in his little Garden behind his House 

 at about four Foot Distance each, in the Manner and 

 Form of a Vineyard : They have taken Root and 

 are about one Foot and a half high ; the next Year 

 he says he does not doubt raising a. Thousand more, 

 and the Year following at least five Thousand. I 

 could not believe (considering the high Situation of 

 the Town upon a Pine Barren, and the little Ap- 

 pearance of such Productions in these little Spots 

 of Ground annexed to the House) but that he had 

 found some proper Manure wherewith to improve the 

 sandy Soil ; but he assured me it was nothing but 

 the natural Soil, without any other Art than his 

 Planting and Pruning which he seemed to set some 

 Value on from his Experience in being bred among 

 the Vineyards in Portugal; and, to convince the World 

 that he intends to pursue it from the Encouragement 

 of the Soil proving so proper for it, he has at this 

 Time hired four Men to clear and prepare as much 

 Land as they possibly can upon his forty -five Acre 

 Lot, intending to convert every Foot of the whole 

 that is fit for it into a Vineyard : though he com- 

 plains of his present Inability to be at such an ex- 

 pense as to employ Servants for Hire. From hence 

 I could not but reflect on the small Progress that 

 has been made hitherto in propagating vines in the 

 publick Garden where, the Soil being the same, it 

 must be owing to the Unskilfulness or Negligence of 

 those who had undertaken that Charge." 



But the attempt soon failed. William Bacon 

 Stevens, in his "History of Georgia," writes that 



