No. 6. 



British Association. 



183 



light coloured wine, similar to fine Hock. 

 A single vine has often produced one hun- 

 dred and fifty gallons of pure wine in a sea- 

 eon. It is not sufficiently hardy for the 

 eastern or middle States. 



The four varieties above named, are the 

 most celebrated for wine. 



Elsinborough, Longworth's Ohio, Nor- 

 ton's Viii^inia Seedling, Weller's Halifax 

 Lenoir, Vine Arbour, Hansteretlo, Alissou- 

 ri, and Herbemont, are fine table varieties, 

 but so far have not proved so valuable for 

 wine as the four kinds first named. 



Until within a few years, it was consider- 

 ed a settled point, that wine could not be 

 made in this country without the addition of 

 sugar or alcohol. There was never a more 

 egregious error ; and tlie first to teach us 

 in this matter, were the German vinedress- 

 ers, when they commenced the vineyard 

 culture in this country. Now at Cincinna- 

 ti, — the vicinity of Reading, Pa., — and in 

 other principal vine growing districts, nei- 

 ther sugar nor alcohol is used; and the wine 

 is in higher repute than ever, and commands 

 a better price. 



At the Hermitage vineyards in France, 

 the annual average vintage is from 210 to 

 260 gallons per acre. At Cincinnati, the 

 average is from 450 to 500 gallons per acre. 



In France the average price of lands is 

 8200 per acre. In this country the average 

 price would not amount to .$50 per acre. It 

 is true, that once in a few years the crop of 

 grapes fails; but this is the case with all 

 crops. This failure happens oftener in 

 France than in this country; but notwith- 

 standing this and the high price of land in 

 France, the cultivation of the grape is the 

 most profitable culture in the kingdom, and 

 the hands are better paid for this, than for 

 any other agricultural employment. 



Our American wines have to be sold at 

 lower prices than foreign wines of the same 

 quality, in order to introduce them. Cataw- 

 ba, one year old, now sells at Cincinnati at 

 about one dollar and fifty cents per gallon. 

 In bottles, the usual retail price is from forty 

 to fifty cents per bottle. Last season an 

 analysis of Catawba wine and some of the 

 best Hockheimer of Europe, was made by 

 Dr. W. B. Chapman, one of the first chem- 

 ists of Cincinnati, which proved that our 

 Catawba was the purest and richest wine. 



In 1845, 23,219 gallons of wine were 

 made in Hamilton county, Ohio. Many of 

 the vineyards being young, bore for the first 

 time, and more than half of the crop was 

 cut oft" by the frost and rot — a fiiilure that 

 may not happen again for ten years. 



William Rasor, near Cincinnati, has a 

 vineyard of one acre — it came into bearing 



in 1837, and for nine years produced an 

 average annual yield of four hundred and 

 seventj'-sevcn gallons of pure wine, and at 

 an average annual expense not exceeding 

 one hundred dollars. 



B. G. BOSWELL, 



230 Pine St., PhiVa. 

 Dec. 22nd, 1846. 



British Association. 



The following extract is given from the 

 proceedings of the Sixteenth Meeting of 

 the British Association. 



" Professor Daubeny communicated a pa- 

 per ' On the Rationale of certain Practices 

 employed inx\griculture,' specifying amongst 

 the rest the use of quicklime and of gypsum 

 as fertilizers to the land. The former of 

 these substances he supposes to act in part, 

 by rendering those inorganic substances 

 which are present in the soil more soluble, 

 or — in accordance with the views laid down 

 by the author in a memoir which he has 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions 

 of last year — by converting the dorviant 

 constituents of the soil into active ones, or 

 into a state in which they become immedi- 

 ately available. He appealed to the autho- 

 rity of Professor Fuchs, confirmed by that 

 of Mr. Pridcaux, of Plymouth, as showing 

 that the alkali may be extracted from gra- 

 nite readily by water, after the rock in a 

 pounded form has been heated, together 

 with quicklime; and he stated that a soil 

 exhausted by long-continued cropping, was 

 found by himself to yield to water twice as 

 much alkali, after having been mixed with 

 quicklime, as it had done before. Hence 

 the frequent application of lime tends to 

 produce exhaustion in the land; — not only 

 because it supplies in itself no fresh alkali, 

 but likewise because, by rendering that 

 which the soil contains more soluble, it 

 causes it to be washed away more readily 

 by atmospheric water. Ploughing, and other 

 mechanical methods of pulverizing the soil, 

 appear to act in the same way; and so, also, 

 may we suppose to do the sprinkling of the 

 soil with sulphuric acid, as is practised in 

 some parts of the continent. The author 

 then alluded to the various modes of ex- 

 plaining the advantage attributed to gypsum, 

 which certain leading agricultural chemists 

 had proposed : one ascribing its virtues to 

 the direct influence of the salt; another to 

 the indirect good resulting from it, owing to 

 its property of fixing ammonia ; a third, re- 

 garding its acid constituent as of the princi- 

 pal utility, and a fourth, its base. Dr. Dau- 

 beny gave reasons for rejecting the third 

 and fourth of these hypothesis; but consi- 

 dered that the use of gypsum may be in 



