TttE GRAPE* 251 



states are quite as favourable as the banks of the Ohio for these 

 varieties, the much greater yield of these grapes leads us to be- 

 lieve that we may even here pursue wine-making profitably. 

 The vineyard culture of the native grape is very simple. 



ties that may be worthy of cultivation, and one that may make a wine equal to 

 Madeira, but it produces small wood and will not bear a large crop. It was re- 

 ceived from Prince under the name of the Missouri, but it is clearly a foreign 

 grape, and I believe of the Pineau family. We must rely on our native grapes, 

 and new varieties raised from their seed. Our best success, with present materials, 

 will be with the Catawba grape, as we can make from it a wine equal to the best 

 Hock, and with a finer aroma. I sent recently a sample of some Catawba wine 

 to New-Orleans, and was offered the highest price of Hock wine if I would for- 

 ward a quantity for sale. 



The Isabella rots with us more than other grapes, and is only fit to make a sweet 

 wine by adding sugar. I have made a fine, white, sweet wine from it, and have 

 samples now 12 years of age. The Ohio grape is, with us, quite as hardy as the 

 Catawba and Isabella. It does not bear to be crowded, but requires the full bene- 

 fit of the sun and air. I deem it better for the table than for wine, as it is free from 

 the hard pulp common to most of our native grapes. 



The cultivation of the grape at Vevay is on the wane, as they cultivate only 

 one variety the Cape grape a native sort, otherwise known as the Alexander's, 

 or Schuylkill Muscadell. From it they may make a rough, red, acid wine. This 

 same grape makes a wine resembling, and equal to, the Tenereiffe, when made 

 without being fermented on the skins, and with the addition of brandy as is usual 

 with the Tenereiffe. 



I have now 14 vineyards, under the management of Germans and Swiss, and 

 containing about 70 acres. The wine meets a ready sale with our German popu- 

 lation, at prices varying from 75 cents to one and a half dollars per gallon, by the 

 quantity. 



The grape requires a good soil, and is bene fitted by well rotted manure. For 

 aspect I prefer the sides of our hills, but our native grapes would not succeed well 

 in a dry sandy soil, particularly the Catawba, which is a cousin german to the old 

 fox-grape, that prefers a spot near a stream of water. The north sides of our hills 

 are the richest, and I believe they will, as our summers are warm, in the majority 

 of seasons produce the best crops. In my first attempts at vineyard culture, to 

 gratify my Germans, I went to unnecessary expense in deep trenching. In a loose 

 soil, like mine, it can do no good ; in a clay soil it is injurious to put the rich soil 

 below and have from one to two feet of clay on the top. The root seldom gets to 

 the rich soil, and grows too near the surface, which should be guarded against, 

 as the fruit then suffers from the drought. Deep ploughing is better, and is not 

 a twentieth part of the expense. Where a hill is steep, trenching and walling or 

 sod terracing, is necessary. 



I believe our best wine will be made in latitudes similar to ours. A location 

 farther north may answer well if the ground be covered with snow all the winter, 

 to protect the vine. It is to this cause that they are indebted for their success in 

 the cultivation of the grape on the Jura mountains, in France. There is little 

 doubt that the grape will bear better with us, and (judging from samples I have 

 had from the first grower at the south,) will make a better wine here than in 

 Carolina. 



There was lately published an absurd statement respecting the product of a 

 vineyard at the south that the product was at the rate of 3,400 gallons of wine to 

 the acre. This arose from a false calculation, made by measuring the yield of a 

 single vine, which grew over the top of a tree, and calculating the product of the 

 vineyard by the space occupied by the root of this vine ! One favourable year I 

 selected, from the best part of one of my vineyards, the fourteenth part of an acre, 

 the product of which was 105 gallons at the rate of 1,470 gallons per acre. The 

 best crop I have ever seen, was here, at the vineyard of Mr. Hackinger, a Ger- 

 man about 900 gallons to the acre, from the Catawba grape. It was a truly 

 gratifying sight to see, in the midst of the vintage, his aged father sitting in his 

 arm chair, under the shade of a tree, in the centre of the vineyard, with his bot- 

 tle and glass " just as he did in Germany." 



We generally leave six feet between the rows, and use the plough, setting the 

 plants 3 to 4 feet apart, and training them to stakes about 6 feet high. The Ger* 



