NEW ENGl.ATO> FARMER. 



PUBLISHED BY J. B. RUSSELL, NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (at the AoRicoLXURiL Warj house.) — T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



VOL,. XI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 14, 1832. 



NO. IS. 



Communications 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND FAHMER. 



Dear Sir — Please to publish the uicloscd very 

 interesting comnuinicatiou from N. Lo.ngworth, 

 Esq. of Cincinnati, on the cnlture of tlie vine, and 

 the mode of making wine from our native grapes. 



Very respectfully, your n»ost obd't servant, 

 H. A. S. DEARBORN, 



Pres. fllass. Hort. Society. 

 T. G. FusEKDES, Esq. 



CiKciKKiti, Ohio, Oct. 10, 1832. 

 H. A. S. Dearborn, Esq. 



Sir — A press of business has hitherto prevent- 

 ed my acknowledging the honor done me, in elect- 

 ing me an honorary member of the Massachusetts 

 Horticultural Society. I was at your horticultural 

 fair, in Boston, in Sept. 1831 ; and contrary to my 

 expectation, I found your specimens of fruits, in 

 variety and size, surpassing those I had seen in 

 New York and Philadelphia. I little expected'to 

 see foreign grapes succeeding with you in open 

 culture ; but those I saw in the gardens in the vi- 

 cinity of Boston, coidd not be surpassed in any 

 part of the Union. Your success is in part atl^'ib- 

 utable to skilful cultivation, but more to your |oil, 

 which is better calculated for the culture of |or- i ill be found to be a greater enemy than our 

 eign grapes than any I liave seen. I I.vinters, owing to the humidity of our climate, for 



I did, this fall, intend sending to your Sojfciv which there is no remedy, 

 some specimens of wine, but delayed it ti/i tooi As a general rule, our native grapes will be 

 late. Next season you shall not be neglected. | found to abound in leaven, and deficient in the 



To raise the grape in perfection, of domestic ori saccharine principle. But this can always be add- 

 gin, requires but little skill. The manufacture o led, and answer precisely the same purpose as if 

 wines is an art that requires many years' practice, contained in the grape. Of this I fully satisfied 

 since wines, sweet or dry, red or whiti', may pro-jmj'self by experiment. I gathered some grapes 



•^^as inferior to that made at Vevay, in Indiana. 

 At the latter place they make wine from one vari- 

 ety of grape only, the Schuylkill Muscade!, and 

 lave very much neglected their vineyards of late 

 jears. If I am correctly informed, from this 

 grape they have made over 950 gallons to the acre. 

 That the culture of the vine may be mide profita- 

 ile, I have no doubt. But to manufacture good 

 line will require skill ; and person* to admire it 

 riust be accustomed to its peculiar-lavor. At one 

 "ineyard this season, I made 22 uarrels of wine. 

 ; measured off one fourteent<i part of an acre, 

 vhich produced 105 gallons, p^ual to 1470 gallons 

 the acre. The vines vere planted six feet 

 ipart. In Europe they rre often planted only 

 :lirce feet, sometimes neirer. Mine were trained 

 Dn stakes. If at three-eet they would have been 

 equally productive, which I am convinced they 

 ivo dd not, they wnild yield nearly 6000 gallons 

 tlie acre. I ay confident I can raise 3000 gal- 

 ons to the aero All my attempts with foreign 

 jrapes have t'us far failed. Some seasons they 

 may succee'', but I have met with no kind that 

 ivould stapJ our winters, and I have tried upwards 

 cf l.'iO v>i'ieties. With great skill in pruning, and 

 foverVig the vines in winter, I believe some kinds 

 may ie successfully cultivated. My foreign vines 

 oftei stand the severest winters, but it is when the 

 ivod ripens. In other winters, more moderate, 

 ihy are killed to the ground. But the mildew 



have supposed that foreign grapes would better 

 stand our climate if grafted on our native stocks. 

 I have rather foiuid it an objection. If raised from 

 cuttings and killed to the ground, fresh sprouts 

 will spring up from the roots. Those grafted oii 

 native vines were often killed down to the native 

 root. I regret that more attention has not been 

 bestowed in collecting native grapes from our for- 

 ests and prairies. To tlieni, and new varieties 

 raised from their seed, we must resort, if we wish 

 success. I have in my garden, a white and a green 

 variety, raised from the seed of the Schuylkill 

 Muscadel. I have several seasons tried raising 

 from seed, but they have generally, when a few 

 inches high, been killed by mildew. I shall in 

 future, try them in hot beds. But I must close, 

 having alreaily trespassed more on your patience 

 than I intended. Very respectfully, 



N. LONGWORTH. 



ceed from the same grape. AH my German vine 



dressers are entirely ignorant of the principles of the sun, housing them at night. They yielded 



fermentation, and possess not the least skill in the 

 manufacture of wine. I presume they usually sold 

 their wines at the press to intelligent wine coop 



wHen fully ripe, and exposed them several days to 



about two thirds the quantity of juice, the same 

 quantity of grapes fresh from the vines produced. 

 To the latter I added as much loaf sugar as made 



ers. Most persons, who have made wine in the the saccharine principle equal. There was no 

 United States, have erred in attempting to imitate Perceptible difference in the wine. None of our 

 foreign wines. American wine can be made equal .dative grapes this season, requii-ed sugar, and 

 to some of the most celebrated foreign varieties^I have one variety so abundant in the saccharine 

 but they are, unfortunately, kinds not generally principle, as never to require it. I shall this sea- 

 used or admired in the United States. I believe son for the first time, test its qualities as a wine 

 we could, with a little practice, make wine equai grape. The grape is small. Bunches large and 

 to the best Hock ; but we should be told, as JMI shouldered, without the tough pulp, common to 

 Shealty, a German merchant at Baltimore, was bij our native grapes, and much admired as a table, 

 his friends. When on the Rhine he procured d fruit. Generally speaking, our wines, like most 

 few dozen bottles of old Hock, for which he paitlof the French wines, will be in perfection the first 

 a high price. On a special occasion he produced or second year. Much has been said of the ad- 

 a bottle, and was told by his friends that " his ci-.vantages resulting from close fermentation in the 

 der was sour." Major Adlum manufactures winejnianufacture of wine. I tried it for two years in 

 ■with more skill than any person I have seen, buisuccession. The same quality of must was sub- 

 to eflect sales, is compelled, against his betteijected to open and close fermentation. In the lat 



judgment, so to manufacture his must, as to iini 

 tatc popular foreign wines. Scupperiaong uiue 

 have never seen. I procured two liarrels mar 

 years since, from North Carolina, said to be oft 

 best. They are still in my cellar. They art 

 compound of grape juice, cider, honey and apf- 

 brandy. 



The wine I saw at little Yorkin, Pennsylvaril, 



ter case the fermentation continued much long- 

 er, but there was no perceptihle difference in the 

 quality of the wine ; I have therefore abandoned it. 

 In speaking of domestic wine, I should not 

 omit the name of W. Ilobremont. He sent me a 

 sample of wine resembling iMadeira, that, with the 

 addition of the brandy usual in Madeira wine, and 

 a few years age would have passed as such. JIany 



DESTRUCTION BY BIICE. 



Mr Fessende.v — Early last spring, I had oc- 

 casion to call on Sir E. Thayer of Dorchester, and 

 witnessed the destruction of fruit trees in his or- 

 chard and nursery, occasioned by field mice the last 

 winter ; the sight, of which surprised me, never 

 having seen the like before. These mice have 

 this season overrun the fields and pastures in some 

 parts of Plymouth county, and already com- 

 menced their attacks upon fruit trees ; and if ne- 

 cessity compels them to this now, lam fearful they 

 will complete their work the eustiing winter. What 

 shall we do i.> fuard'against this enemy ? I also 

 wish to inqiiire, ai what season of the year, the 

 seed of the difterent kinds of birch is ripe, and for 

 the best method of saving it. Perhaps the author 

 of the American Sylva, or some of your corres- 

 pondents will have the goodness to give a descrip- 

 tion of the seed. A little information on this sub- 

 ject will much oblige A Subscriber. 



JVovemher 1, 1832. 



Remarks by the Editor. 



The common methods of destroying domestic 

 mice by cats, traps, poison, &c, &c, have been 

 too often detailed to require repetition. But with 

 regard to mice by the acre or ioivnship, we know 

 of no adequate remedy ; and would as soon at- 

 tempt to nrite a receipt to change the northeast 

 wind, as prescribe a cure for a plague of that de- 

 scription. 



Trees in nurseries may sometimes be protected 

 by treading down the snows, which first fall in 

 autumn, and the beginning of winter, so as to 

 make a hard and compact mass about the stems of 

 the trees, which the mice cannot penetrate nor 

 make paths under, in order to obtain access to the 

 trees. 



In the last edition of Deane's j\"cw England 

 Farmer, are the following observations, which ap- 

 ply in part to this subject. 



" It has been said of late that tannsrs' spent 

 bark is an admirable substitute for the mulch so 

 much recommended by early writers, to be laid 

 about the roots of trees to keep the ground open. 

 The evidence \n favor of it is very strong, and it 

 is certain that it will afford a much less shelter to 

 field mice. From its structure it is impossible for 

 them to burrow into it and to form nests, and it is 



