GRAPE-VINE. 75 



wine-making is to obtain such as at maturity possess suffi- 

 cient sugar in their juice to render the addition of either 

 sugar or alcohol unnecessary for the future stages of the 

 wine. 



The Catawba is, according the Cincinnati authorities, 

 the only grape yet found in the U. S. which fulfils this 

 great desideratum. Grood wine is often made from other 

 grapes — such for example as the Isabella and Scuppernong 

 — but both these require the addition of considerable sugar 

 to produce the requisite degree of fermentation. 



The following communication, made by Mr. Longworth 

 to the Cincinnnati Horticultural society, contains much 

 highly valuable information relative to the vine culture in 

 the United States : — 



" I have for thirty years experimented on the foreign 

 grape, both for the table and for wine. In the acclimation 

 of plants I do not believe, for the White Sweet Water does 

 not succeed as well with me as it did thirty years since. I 

 obtained a large variety of French grapes from Mr. Lou- 

 bat many years since. They were from the vicinity of Pa- 

 ris and Bordeaux. From Madeira I obtained six thousand 

 vines of their best wine grapes. Not one was found worthy 

 of cultivation in this latitude, and were rooted from the 

 vineyards. As a last experiment, I imported seven thou- 

 sand vines from the mountains of Jura, in the vicinity of 

 Salins, in France. At that point the vine region suddenly 

 ends, and many vines are there cultivated on the north side 

 of the mountain, where the ground is covered with snow 

 the whole winter from three to four feet deep. Nearly all 

 lived, and embraced about twenty varieties of the most cel- 

 ebrated wine grapes of France. But after a trial of five 

 years, all have been thrown away. I also imported sam- 

 ples of wine made from all the grapes. One variety alone, 



