Mock Candy and Native Wines. 



205 



cotton mill for a while to supply the 

 muslin ; for the Bluifton Wine Com- 

 pany have this season set out two 

 hundred and fifty thousand cuttings, 

 Covering upwards of three acres. 

 They look exceedingly well thus far. 



The mode I have practiced for my- 

 self, and also when in charge of said 

 company's affairs, was to dress the 

 cuttings in the fall and winter, tie 

 them in bundles of 250 each, bury 

 them in sand (buts down), covered so 

 as out of reach of frost. Leave them 

 there until the ground becomes dry 

 enough in the spring — the earlier this 

 can be done the better. They are then 

 planted either straight upright or at 

 an angle of about 45°, leaving the 

 upper eye about even with the surface 

 of the ground. After that, with clean 

 thorough cultivation, and anything 

 like a fair season, you can count on 

 from 50 to 90 per cent, growing. 



As to such plants being ridiculous. 



we would here state (and many of 

 your readers have seen them) : That, 

 in 1867, at least 85 per cent, of the 

 cuttings we put out grew, and the 

 second class were few in number, com- 

 pared with the quantity grown. 



When vines have from one to three 

 feet of sound, ripe wood, with roots 

 a yard and more long, and plenty of 

 them, they are, in our opinion, equal, 

 if not suj^erior, to what they call No. 

 1 layei's. 



It may sound somewhat severe to 

 find so much fault with the communi- 

 cation referred to, and that your 

 comments would have been sufficient ; 

 but, in my humble opinion, j^ou 

 touched it too lightly, and it might 

 mislead and cause unnecessary trou- 

 ble and expense to some who would 

 try his plan. Simplicity is what we 

 want, and not a finely got up, compli- 

 cated contrivance. 



Yours, respectfully, 



Bluffton, Mo., June 19, 18G9. 



S. M. 



I 



ROCK CANDY AND NATIVE WINES. 



I see it repeated in the last issue of 

 the Southern Farmer that large quan- 

 tities of rock candy were used by Mr. 

 Longworth in the manufacture of na- 

 tive wines ; at least that numerous 

 boxes marked " rock candy " wore seen 

 about his establishment, from which 

 the inference is left to be drawn that 

 sugar, in some form, was necessary to 

 the manufacture of native wines in 

 Ohio. I think I can explain that. 

 Some twelve or fourteen years ago, 

 being much interested in the subject of 

 native wine, I paid several visits to 

 Cincinnati, then the center of the wine 

 growing region, and formed the ac- 



quaintance of Messrs. Longworth, Bu- 

 chanan, and others eiigaged in the 

 business. I became satisfied, from 

 statements of gentlemen of unimpeach- 

 able honor, that the best still Catawba 

 could be, and was, made of the must of 

 the grapes without the addition of either 

 sugar or alcohol. This I afterward 

 verified by actual experience at my 

 vineyard near Wartrace, in Tennessee. 

 I made wine of high merit, a specimen 

 of a dozen bottles of which was exhi- 

 bited at the National Fair at Louisville 

 in 1857, and obtained the diploma for 

 the best Catawba one year old. Not 

 the fraction of an ounce of unj sub- 



