JiJditors' Letter Jio.i-. 



121 



Dear 8ir : My fondness for i 

 " native grapes and wine " is my ! 

 apology for addressing you. And 

 permit nio, in tlie outset, to return my 

 thanks to the author of a really prac- 

 tical and common-sense book on this 

 subject. 1 trust that your teachings, 

 when moi*e generally disseminated, ; 

 will be the means of awakening a new 

 and profitable industry in this part of 

 the country. Expensive and compli- 

 cated modes of training, together with 

 effete or tender varieties, do not meet 

 the wants of a people not yet recov- 

 ered from the desolations of war. I I 

 am an enthusiast on the subject of ! 

 fruits (so think my wise friends). I j 

 live in a climate and on a soil uncom- 

 monly congenial to the apple and 

 grape. Mj latitude is thirty-five de- ■ 

 grees and twenty minutes. My alti- 

 tude, twenty-five hundred feet above 

 tide-water. I am on the most south- 

 ern bend of the great Allegheny 

 chain. Our highest peaks reach 

 seven thousand feet, and we have 

 elevated plains or plateaus of four 

 thousand feet. Our lowest vallej-s 

 are from two to three thousand feet 

 high. Our elevation gives us a cool 

 climate, and our southern location a 

 long summer and late fall. Our true ; 

 grape region is the sunny sides of our i 

 mountains, bordering on our lowest 

 and largest valleys. Here, at an | 

 elevation of three or four hundred | 

 feet, even the Isabella and Catawba j 

 do not rot. These mountains are } 

 generally rich and loose. The late 

 frosts of spring and early frosts of 

 autumn do not touch them. The fogs 

 and heavy dews of summer are not 

 felt in this stratum oi" air that rests 



here. The peach always bears up 

 there. 



This country is the native home of 

 the Catawba, and along our winding 

 streams, and sunn}- hillsides, its con- 

 geners grow in great profusion and 

 endless variet}-, some of which, I 

 think, are of great value — possessing 

 all the excellence of the Catawba, 

 without its feeble habit, its blighted 

 leaf or rotting fruit — possessing the 

 vigor and prolific habits of the Con- 

 cord, without its "foxy" aroma. 



I have, the past autumn, made ex- 

 tensive researches for valuable wild- 

 ings, and I flatter myself that I have 

 not labored in vain. I will bring from 

 their shady nocdcs, in their forest 

 homes, eight varieties. I will give 

 them vine^'ard culture on a warm hill- 

 side. If, after sufficient trial, the}' 

 pi-ove "first-class," the world may 

 have them. If otherwise, they shall 

 figure on no outcf^st list, but my own. 



What i^ the result of Mr. Laugeu- 

 dorfer's further experience with his 

 seedling of the Xorton ? Has it yet 

 a habitation and a name in the vine- 

 yards of Hermann? Will a good 

 article of soi'ghum do for the im- 

 provement of the acid juice? If it 

 will, the successful manufacture of 

 wine is placed in the reach of men 

 without capital, and it may literally 

 become the beverage "for the mil- 

 lion." Every man in this country 

 may literally "sit under his own 

 vine," may drink his own wine ; 

 Avhisky and rum become scarce, and 

 the jails and ijenitentiaries may 

 advertise "rooms to let." 



Please answer this, and oblige. 

 Your distant friend, 



EOBERT iiOGERS. 



Webster, X. C. 



Yours is a ver^' interestin<>; commu- 



