108 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



ous luxuriance, seeming obviously to suggest, at every turn, the rearing of the 

 silk-worm and the culture of the grape as among the most palatable and healthy 

 of all fruits, and the manufacture of wine as a beverage that everywhere im- 

 plies and is accompanied by national sobriety and industry. 



We were never more struck with this than in a late ride in Prince George's 

 county, down as low as Nottingham. Through all that county, (and no less in 

 our mountainous regions less adapted to the plow,) as in fact through all south- 

 ern grain States, there is a wide margin or turning-row left along every fence 

 side, enough on every plantation to make a snug New-England farm. These 

 immense turning-rows and fence sides soon grow up in briars, and almost every- 

 where exhibit luxuriant volunteer grape vines — going unequivocally to indicate 

 the congeniality of the soil and climate to the production of the grape and the 

 wines for which the grape has been used from the days of Noah to the present 

 time. Notwithstanding this clear intimation of a kind Providence inviting to 

 the cultivation and improvement of this delicious and wholesome fruit, and, as 

 it were, flaunting in our very face and eyes the proof of our facilities for pro- 

 ducing it, how many farmers there are still, who let season after season pass 

 without having a single well-cultivated vine about their premises ! for even one 

 would supply their table with grapes enough for one family. Fortunately this 

 classical and interesting branch of industry appears to be taking firm root in 

 some of the younger States, to whom we on the sea-board should have set the 

 example. In Ohio and Indiana, where it seems to be making most steady pro- 

 gress, settlers from the Rhine have probably contributed to push it forward by 

 their practical knowledge of the subject, counteracting in this way the pernicious 

 influence and bad habits of too many others who bring Avith them the love of 

 liquor and all its riotous and disorderly propensities. 



We submit an essay on the Culture of the Grape (taken from the Cincinnati 

 Farmer and Gardener), which, from its locality as well as its contents, being 

 ourselves without much experience, we suppose to be a safe guide for those who 

 propose to embark in the business. If in addition to this we could be favored by 

 Doctor Underhill Avith a sketch of his observations and experience in the culti- 

 vation of the grape for the table, we could not offer to the readers of this work a 

 more acceptable or valuable present. 



The Doctor's experiments have now been long continued, extensive, expensive, 

 varied and successful ; and we are glad to say that one result is, that while 

 many have been deterred from going into the business from an apprehension that 

 any addition to his supplies would overstock the market, we have understood, 

 but not from him, that he sends to the New-York market, some $8,000 or ^10,000 

 worth in a season. Be that as it may, it is certain that he gets double the price 

 for his grapes now that he did thirteen years ago, and feels confident that no 

 amount of production that can take place will keep way with the rapidly in- 

 creasing consumption of and demand for table grapes. He who is so familiar, 

 by much experience, with the subject, is well convinced that, of all others, the 

 culture of grapes opens now the most inviting held for the investment of capital 

 and the exercise of horticultural enterprise in the neighborhood of all our large 

 cities; and we understand him to be well provided to supply the materials and 

 necessary instructions for carrying it on to those who may be inclined to embark 

 in it. Nothing, we may add, could be more discouraging than his first experi- 

 ments, and the obstacles he encountered for several years — obstacles which too 

 easily overcome the timid and the indolent, but which have in his case been con- 

 {2r)2) 



