Can Grape Growing be Overdone? 



359 



of industry assume the importance to 

 which it is justly entitled. 



2d. To attain the latter result, to 

 make so-called fancy wines, wines for 

 the connoisseur, which can compete 

 successfully with the best European 

 brands, we must carefully select such 

 locations which are suited to the finer 

 varieties. For these we must look, 

 with few exceptions, to the Aes- 

 tivalis class, and for location to 

 our sunny southern hillsides, with de- 

 composed limestone soil. There the 

 Norton, Cynthiana, Herbemont, Ru- 

 lander, Louisiana, Cunningham, and 

 similar varieties, will alone yield their 

 best results, and friend Engelmann need 

 not expect anything like it on his soil. 

 The Norton's Virginia grown on the 

 prairies of Illinois, and the wine of the 

 same grape grown on the Missouri 

 bluffs, will bear about the same relative 

 merit as the common French clarets 

 when compared with choice Burgund}', 

 and the wines made in the best local- 

 ities will in future be as much sought 

 after, and realize as high figures, as those 

 of the celebrated localities in Europe. 

 It is true we have not yet gained these 

 results, but they will follow as sure as 

 the nation is progressive. If we look 

 back on the last ten years, and the 

 progress which grape culture and 

 wine making have made during that 

 time, we can form an estimate of what 

 will be done in the future. We have 

 only been experimenting in grape cul- 

 ture during that time ; but these experi- 

 ments are invaluable as a basis for fu- 

 ture operations. When, instead of the 

 five and ten gallon casks made of any 

 promising variety heretofore, wine is 

 made by thousands of gallons, we will 

 begin to see the importance of these 



experiments ; and only then will Amer- 

 ican wines take that rank in the market 

 and upon the tables of the connoisseurs, 

 as well as upon the board of the daily 

 laborer, which justly belongs to them. 

 The greatest mistakes which so far have 

 been made in American grape culture, 

 may be summed up as follows : 



1st. Indiscriminate planting, When 

 the object is merely to produce fruit for 

 the market, it may be true that grapes, 

 at least some varieties, will grow on al- 

 most any soil, and produce fair market- 

 able fruit ; but for wine it is different, 

 and we predict that in future only 

 the wines from good locations will find 

 a ready sale. 



2d. Planting on too large a scale. 

 How often have we heard men say that 

 " they intended to set out a small vine- 

 yard of say ten or twenty acres, next 

 spring, to begin with." These inno- 

 cent souls had no idea of the labor and 

 skill required to manage a vineyard of 

 even five acres. They supposed that it 

 would be as easy to work ten acres of 

 vines as so many acres of corn, and 

 when the vines arrived at the second 

 and third year, they were unable to keep 

 them in order and manage them, and 

 did not realize as much from them as 

 they could have had from two acres, if 

 well managed. Of course, the fruit 

 from such neglected vineyards was not 

 so good, their proprietors dtd not know 

 how to make and manage their wines, 

 and a product was the result, which 

 could not find, nor did it deserve, ready 

 sale, but only served to give the public 

 a very low estimate of our native wines. 



3d. Every small grape grower, al- 

 most, was either forced by circumstan- 

 ces, or preferred to make his own wine, 

 without the most necessary require- 



