30 



NRW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Aug. 14, 1829. 



miles from any poplar trees. Shortly after the 

 peach trees of our rountry became diseased, a 

 writer in a Philadelphia paper on the diseases of 

 our fruit trees, remarked, that fruit trees would 

 run out, and die, and that all our ])cuch trees 

 would jierisli preiMiiiurely, anil that our apple and 

 pear trees in time woulil share the same fate, and 

 lie farther remarked in Miip|>ort of his |)osition, that 

 as those trees had been introduced into America 

 from foreign lands, we would again bo obliged to 

 have recourse l" foreign countries for a new stock 

 of fruit tree.-. Time alono will prove those re- 

 marks. His remarks on peach trees an; verified, 

 and that our apples ami pears are not as good and 

 as durable now, as the same kinds fifty years ago, 

 is well known, nor do our pear and apple trees 

 grow aa large as those of a recent period have 

 done. 



We have a few peach trees now growing on 

 l>ong Island, from Buenos Ayres, and a few years 

 will determine whether foreign trees will thrive 

 better than those of our own country. 



A FARMER. 



The Rail Road between the Susquehanna and 

 the Schuylkill is proceeding with much vigor. — 

 Contractors arc actively engaged on nearly every 

 section of the road. The road formation of one 

 section, about five miles from the Schuylkill, is 

 nearly com|)leted. 



The orange, lemon, citron, lime, olive, Sec. are 

 cultivated to a considerable extent in Florida, 

 where they thrive and llourisli exceedingly w ell — 

 great quantities of the former, particularly, were 

 raised the last year — 15,000 having been gather- 

 ed at St Augustine alone. 



Ifoven Cattle. — As the distension is chiefly oc- 

 casioned by carbonic acid gas, any substance 

 which will combine with that ga.", will reduce it. 

 Such a substance is readily found in ammonia, 

 (hartshorn) a spoonful of which infused in water, 

 on<l forced do»vn the animal's throat, completely 

 removes the distension. 



The Tea Shrub has been naturalized in Asia 

 with complete success, so that, sooner or later, 

 the Chinese monopoly will come to an end, and 

 with that end, probably, the Celestial Empire will 

 break in pieces. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 1829. 



(.ll.Tn ATION OF TIIF, VINE IN THE 

 I'.MTED .STATES. 



It is a matter miirh c-ontrovcrled by scientific 

 and practical cultivators, whelher vines of foreign 

 origin can he raised to advar;fage in the United 

 States. We shall not taki! a side, in this ipies- 

 ticin, but merely give some of the facts and argu- 

 ments, which have been advanced on both sides. 



The writer nf an abli- article for the New Eng- 

 land Farmer, publiihed vol. v. page 260, adduces 

 many facts from which hi' draws the following 

 conclusions. " For the lahle, we in the northern 

 states, may and ought to culiivato the grape. Cu- 

 rious men who have the ambition to produce a 

 homo made wine, much worse than eider, may 

 raisi.it, but let ingenious and sppculalive men be- 

 wore of laying out extensive vineyards in Mussa- 

 rhiipctls." 



Mr J. I.e Kay de ('huumont, a native of Franc | 

 in an adilress, delivered before the Jcfierson ; 

 County, [.\. Y.] Agricultural Society, in the au- , 

 tumn of 1827 soys: — " Diflerent experiments,! 

 which have been made not oidy by me, hut by ^ 

 some other persons in dillcrent parts of the coun- 

 try, have convinced us suflicienlly, that we were 

 not mistaken, when in observing almost every 

 where about us the luxuriant growth of the wild 

 vine and the maturity of its fruit ; we concluded 

 that the vines of Europe might he cultivated here 

 with success. I am convinced that tlie greater 

 port of our soil would be suitable, and produce 

 good fruit if properly attended. Low, wet ground, 

 and the imniediote vicinity of swomps and 

 marshes, and such of the clay lands where the ' 

 waters are apt to dwell too long and camiot be 

 drained, are not favorable. A light and some- 

 what stony or gravelly soil, as well as a ground 

 hoving a gradual declivity, are generally prefera- 

 ble. A southern exposition is to be chosen, but a [ 

 northern one may he tried with success chiefly in , 

 a dry warm soil. I had iiiTrance a vineyard 

 of which the fruit was never destroyed by the 

 frost; that one was in a northern exposition. 

 Some of the best vineyards in Champoigne ore in ; 

 similar exposition, and I have seen many other i 

 exanii)les in favor of this opinion." 



But the same gentleman observes, "When Ij 

 recommend to you the cultivation of the vine, 1 ] 

 shoulil be very sorry if any one should conclude 

 from it that wine could be made now with advan- 1 

 tage in the United States. We have some reasons \ 

 for considering ourselves as not discouragingly far 

 from that desired epoch, but while labor w ill not 

 have fulleii inuoh lower than it is, the attt^mj)! may 

 he made upon a certain scale, by those who wish 

 to make their own wine, or can aflbrd to sacrifice 

 a ])art of their time or money to make experi- 

 ments, hut it cannot be made with profit for sale. 

 It may he the only instance, where mechanical 

 genius, power of water, machinery or the dexteri- 

 ty of the Americans cannot be employed here so 

 as to overbalance the cheapness of labor in Eu- 

 rope. However, J recommend strongly and gen- 

 erally the cidtivation of the vine, not only that we 

 may have under our hands the most wholesome of 

 all fruits, and 1 may say the most agreeable to all 

 tastes, l)iit that we may be prepared for that mo- 

 ment when the jiricc of labor may permit us to 

 cultivate the grape to make wine." i 



The Editor of the Afic York Ilnrlicultxiral Re- 

 pnsiton/, in that paper for Jime last, has a long 

 article on this subject, in w hich he gives the fol- 

 lowing among other statements. 



Mr S. Maveiicli, of MonlpeUer, S. C. writes 

 June, lS2d, that " many families in different jiarts 

 of the State have European vines in their gardens, 

 but I have heard a general complaint of the rot- j 

 ting of the grapes after they have attainctl nearly 

 their full size. The rot comi'ncnces about thi' j 

 middle or latter part of June, and is at first a small 

 drab spot on the side of each grape, spreailing 

 until it covers the berry, which in a few days dries 

 up." I 



The following letter, dated Greene co. Alalia- ' 

 ma, May 11, 1829, is from Robert W. Withers, to [ 

 the Editor of the American Farmer. " With re- ' 

 gard to the. vine, all our eflorts were fruitless so 

 long as we ci>nfined our attention to the cultiva- , 

 tion of the foreign — particularly the French va 

 rieties. Bring myself a resident in the French 

 grant, one of the leailing provisions in the transfer 



of which to the French emigrants, was the cu 

 vatiou of the vine, I have had many upportuni' . 

 of seeing the experiment fairly tried with a gt 

 many varietics,aMd under the care of professed V 

 nerons, but never in one instance have they been ft''- 

 l)aid for their labor and e\p< iiise. Being gener 

 entirely unacquainted with any other kind of c \ii'' 

 livation except that of the vine, and finding the 

 selves so entirely baffled in ibeir best cffortt »- 

 ensure its success, many of them abandoned tl 

 golden dreams and their country together, llci 

 it is tliot neither the views of Congress, nor 

 expectation^ of inilividuals hove as yet been at 

 realized. With such di.sccuraging prospects, ( 

 others were induced to embark in the cultivatlic 



of Bordeaux vines, but it happened that while |i<<i 

 experiments were going on, a gentlefiion in N (prf"- 

 Orleans, wlio was agent for the Swiss associat k ' 

 at Vevay, and an acquaintance of the unforlun c 

 General Lefchvrc Uesueruettes, sent him a I 

 cuttings of vine, without any description of 

 kind or history of the manner in which he beca 

 possessed of them, which upon trial have revi- 

 our desponding hojies. They are evidently I th 

 natives, having an entire difTerent aspect from i 

 of the imported vines, and agreeing entirely w 

 the other native vines I have, in their long joii 

 reil appearance of the bark, exuberance of grov 

 and pulpiness of the fruit. 



" In confirmation of my idea that if we e 

 succeed in cultivating the vine profitably in 

 United States, it will he with the native variet 

 I have found in my travels during the last yi 

 which extended through sixteen of the State« 

 the same idea is almost universally entertain 

 by all who have been engaged in that kindufi 

 tivation. At New Orleans I saw a very fine m 

 cadel vine in the garden of a horticulturist in 

 upper Fauxboin-g ; but was grafted, as he told i 

 on a native, while one which stood imincdiat 

 contiguous, but which had not been grafted, > 

 unthrifty and insignificant in its appearance ! 

 bore comparatively no fruit at all. They w 

 both planted at the same time, (Uid were then t 

 teen years old, so that the experiment in this 

 stance was completely decisive, that unless grail 

 on native stocks they will not succeed." 



The writer then states in substance, that a S\v fgji] 

 colony settled in Kentucky, some twenty ye< ^i^ 

 since, anil expended $10,000 in attempts to 

 vate the vine without even succeeding in nuik 

 a vineyard, much less any wine. That a few 

 persisting in the idea, removed to Veray in ln< 

 ana, who lived comfortably on the products ""^ 

 small vineyards composed entirely of our nat 

 vines — principally the Schuylkill muscadel. Tin 

 colonists " agree that no imported vines, so fur 

 their own experietu c extends, have ever withsto 

 the mildew or carbon, which in a few years in- 

 riably destroys them or prevents their beari 

 fruit, and this like all the other natives, has ne\ 

 been materially all'ectcd l>y it. While at Vevay 

 do not recollect to have seen a single Europe, 

 grope vine, except one very diminutive one in 

 Dufours' garden, and he tohl me they had lo- 

 since been compelled to altandon their cultiv 

 tion." 



The writer then adverts to Mr I.oubat's 

 yoril, on Long Island, in which the imported vin 

 " were small and mdicalthy in comparison wi 

 the native varieties, some of them having a lill t : 

 precocious fruit the first year, which w ith mine, b. Wii 

 generally been the harbinger of disea.sc and b* 



■"I 



