110 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



one acre, exclusive of land, stakes, &c. at least three hundred dollars ; or, with- 

 out trenching, about two hundred. 



The positive and comparative excellence of the Catawba and the Isabella prob- 

 ably depend, in a great measure, on the care Avhich has been bestowed on their 

 improvement by cultivation, by different persons and in different places. While 

 Dr. U. seems rather to give the preference to the Isabella, ]Mr. Longworth, of 

 Cincinnati, very high and respectable authority, is in favor of the Catawba, and 

 has even discarded the Isabella altogether from his vineyard. He says, in a letter 

 to the editor of the Indiana Farmer, paraded in the Government agricultural pa- 

 per at Washington — " The Catawba grape is a good table grape, though not en- 

 tirely free from a hard pulp ; but as a wine grape, in our climate, I consider it 

 superior to all others — capable to make a wine to rival the best hock and Cham- 

 pagne wines ; and that Major Adlum, in introducing it, has left a mine of Avealth 

 to the people of Ohio." The Isabella, he says, " succeeds better at the East 

 than with us. I deem it a poor table grape, and worthless for wine, and have 

 extirpated it from all my vineyards. With two pounds of sugar to the gallon, it 

 makes a pleasant sweet wine." 



If we can't find room in this, we will make it in the next No. to enter upon 

 this subject, at least so far as to give ample information to all who have control 

 of the smallest piece of ground — fully agreeing in opinion with Mr. Hoare, an 

 author of the highest authority, that " of all the productions of the vegetable 

 world which the skill and ingenuity of man have rendered conducive to his com- 

 fort, and to the enlargement of the sphere of his enjoyments, and the increase of 

 his pleasurable gratifications, the vine stands forward as the most preeminently 

 conspicuous. Its quickness of growth — the great age to which it will live ; so 

 great, indeed, as to be unknown — its almost total exemption from all those ad- 

 verse contingencies which blight and diminish the produce of other fruit-bearing 

 trees — its astonishing vegetative powers — its wonderful fertility — and its deli- 

 cious fruit, applicable to so many purposes, and agreeable to all palates, in all its 

 varied shapes, combine to mark it out as one of the greatest blessings bestowed 

 by Providence to promote the comfort and enjoyments of the human race." 



Concurring in the foregoing eloquent eulogy on the grape, we shall not, how- 

 ever, look so much to foreign authors as to American experience for the instruc- 

 tions we shall offer, as that experience shows that in few things does the differ- 

 ence of climate exert a greater influence, demonstrating that European practice 

 in the culture and management of the grape is not suited to our country. 



We must content ourselves for the present with Mr. Mosher's letter on the 

 establishment of a vineyard. Hereafter we shall supply the reader with the best 

 information to be had on the culture of vines on a small scale for family use ; and 

 that information we shall dedicate to the housewife, by whom we verily believe 

 it will be better attended to than by the hushandman. 



From the Cincinnati Karraer and Cravdener. 

 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



As public altcnlion at the present time seems to be somewhat enlisted in the cultore of 

 the gra[)e, and as its saccess is protty well cstablislied in the vicinity of Cincinnati, where it 

 is rapidly extending, a brief skt'tch of iho most approved mode of estjiblisliuig a vineyai-d 

 niiiy bo iicccptablo to sonio of your readei-s. 



Tilt' first step then, is the preparation of the gronnd. The sides or tops of limestone hilla 

 are "cncnally chosen for the location, where the water runs off readily. Sonlli and soutli- 

 eusti;rn exposures arc the best in this cliuiat*'. Tliree niudcs of preparing tlm gionnd iuo 



(V.54) 



