MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



the slightest notion that a vineyard in Mis- 

 souri — however exquisite the vintage — will 

 return the treble per acre of the Lafitte estate 

 of Medoc. There have been exceptionable 

 periods— as in the days of the Morus Multi- 

 caulis fever — when an acre under ordinary 

 cultivation would yield its three or four thou- 

 sand dollars of profit; but whoever makes 

 such excepti-onal returns, whether due to wine 

 or mulberry de/irium, the basis of certain and 

 continued horticultural successes, is either 

 blinded by his enthusiasm, or wantonly mis- 

 leads. 



I record one other fifty-acre experience. 

 Mr. Stimpson, an active, red-bearded, prompt 

 man, is understood to have purchased some 

 eight years since, a farm of some forty to fifty 

 acres, within a couple of miles of the thriving 



city of , for the sum of twenty thousand 



dollars. Does he recommend a similar pur- 

 chase to such inquirers as Mr. Urban? 



Witness. "If Mr. Urban can make as good 

 a purchase — unhesitatingly." 



Mr. Stimpson has found his farming profit- 

 able then? 



The witness begs to correct a possible mis- 

 apprehension ; his farming was not profita- 

 ble. He had undertaken the raising of vege- 



267 



