1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



601 



diJi'erent periods, and in various parts of the country, 

 to attain this object, have hitherto been so unsuccessful 

 as to induce a very general belief that there is some- 

 thing; in our soil or climate so unfriendly to the vine, 

 that it can never be cultivated here with success. As 

 to the former, we know that the iinest wines of Europe 

 are the ])roduce of soils of various descriptions, ex- 

 tremely dili'erent from each other, and it cannot be 

 doubted that we have the same varieties here. The 

 diJficulty, if there be one, independent of our want of 

 experience, must, I think, be referred to climate. Pos- 

 sibly it is insurmountable in some parts of the countrv ; 

 but I am persuaded that tliere are large districts within 

 the United States, in which the grape would find as 

 genial a climate as in Europe. Tlie want of success 

 that has hitherto been experienced, I think may have 

 happened by the selection of kinds not suited to our 

 climate. The vine, as well as other fruits which have 

 been long cultivated, runs into innumerable varieties; 

 and every wine country in Europe has those which 

 have been found suited to its climate, or in a succession 

 of ages have become accommodated to it. In select- 

 ing varieties, two leading circumstances would seem to 

 require attention ; the first, that they should be able to 

 stand the severity of our winter; and the second, tliat 

 the grape should ripen at that season of the year best 

 suited to the making of wine. If the vintage take place 

 during the summer heats, the wine becomes acid by 

 excessive fermentation ; and on the other hand, a grape 

 that does not attain its maturity some time before the 

 usual period of the setting in of the frost, might often 

 be overtaken by the winter, and a year's labor lost. 

 Indeed, if in a climate more temperate than our own, 

 we should find a grape that united these two requisites, 

 it might still fail, when removed to a climate different 

 in other respects from its own. Various kinds of wheat 

 from the Mediterranean have been occasionally sown 

 in this country, and though they resist the cold of our 

 winter, and ripen at the same time with the ordinary 

 kinds, they have generally yielded an imperfect grain. 

 We ought, therefore, in choosing varieties of grapes, 

 to look for them in those countries whose climate most 

 nearly approaches tliat of the district where the expe- 

 riment IS intended to be made. In Italy, Spain, and 

 Portugal, and perhaps the south of France, we should 

 doubtless find grapes of different kinds that would not 

 ripen too early in the season ; but being none of them 

 accustomed to the severity of a winter like ours, it is 

 highly probable that from this cause, most, if not all of 

 them, would fail here. The vines cf Burgundy and 

 Champagne cannot be expected to succeed, both on 

 account of the severity of our winters, and because 

 the grapes would ripen too early in the autumn;* and 

 yet, perhaps, all the varieties of grapes on which ex- 

 periments have been made, have come from these 

 countries. If we ever succeed, I think it must be by 

 brin2:ing our vines from the interior of Germany, from 

 Hungary, or perhaps from Switzerland, countries re- 

 mote from the sea, and whose climate is not much un- 

 like that of many parts of our own. 



" It is a known fact, that as we advance from the 

 sea-coast into the interior of the continent of Europe, 

 from west to east, the winters grow colder and the 

 summers warmer; and in consequence of this differ- 

 ence of climate, the vine is found to succeed in the 

 more eastern and less temperate regions, much further 

 to the north than on the sea-coast. The neighborhood 

 of Nantz, for instance, a little to the north of latitude 

 47°, is the northern limit of the wine district of France, 

 on the western coast ; but as we go to the eastward, the 

 cultivation of the vine extends further and further to 

 the north, and on the banks of the Rhine excellent 



* See Legaux's Table of Vegetation in Pennsylva- 

 nia, compared with that of some of the most famous 

 wine countries in Europe. M'Mahon's Gardener's 

 Calendar, p. 480, extracted, I believe, from some peri- 

 odical work. 



Vol. IV— 76 



wines are produced, at least three degrees further north, 

 and where the severity of the winter is much greatei.* 



" In Germany, trie Hue extends .still further north, 

 intq Saxony ; and in Hungary the vintage of Tokay, 

 the richest perhaps in the world, is gathered considera- 

 bly to the north of latitude 48°. Were our \\nc3 

 brought from these countries to those parts of the 

 United States most like them in climate, it seems 

 highly yn-obable that many of them would succeed.! 



"With regard to the degrees of heat, a pretty accu- 

 rate judgment might be formed by a comparison of 

 thermometrical observations that have been made in 

 both countries; and the period when the grapes would 

 attain maturity here, might be calculated from the 

 periods of haivest, and the fall of the leaf from decidu- 

 ous trees that are common to both countries. If in any 

 two districts, the one in Europe, the other in America, 

 the wheat harvest is at the same season of the year, 

 the fall of the leaf at the same period, and the extremes 

 of cold and heat are nearly alike, it can be hardly 

 doubted, that if wine is made in one of those countries, 

 it might be j)roduced from the same grape in the other. 



"These rules are capable of very extensive applica- 

 tion ; and if they are correct, we might, without wast- 

 ing years in uncertain experiments, calculate in the 

 first instance, with a great degree of accuracy, whether 

 any particular grape would be suited to our climate or 

 not. Perhaps in the more southern parts of the United 

 States it would be difficult to apply them, as it may 

 happen that in all the wine countries of Europe, 

 whose winters are equally severe, the harvest is gath- 

 ered at a later period, and the autumn comes on sooner. 

 Such, I am inclined to believe, is the case; indeed, I 

 am persuaded that the great warmth of our summers 

 is much more unfavorable to the cultivation of the 

 vine, than the winter's cold ; and, of course, that some 

 of the more northerly districts are much more suited 

 to it, than those furthest south. Wine, I believe, is 

 never made within the tropics. In Europe, Indian 

 com is found to require a warmer climate than the 

 vine, J and there are few, if any districts in this coun- 

 try, where some of the varieties of that grain will not 

 come to perfection. Most probably the winter of a 

 large portion of the eastern states would be found too 

 severe for most kinds of the vine. Were I, upon con- 

 jecture, to fix upon a spot for an experiment, I should 

 look for it in those parts of the United States least sub- 

 ject to the extremes of heat as well as cold. The 

 country south of the lakes Erie and Ontario, and the 

 mountainous district that separates the eastern waters 

 from those that fall into the Mississippi, in Pennsylva- 

 nia, Maryland, Virginia, and perhaps the Carolinas, 

 probably would be found to offer the most favorable 

 situations for this purpose ; but this can be determined 

 by experience alone. Perhaps the experiment has al- 

 ready been made, under the circumstances I have ven- 

 tured to recommend, and without success; but I can- 

 not learn that it has ever been done ; and if', in the first 

 instance, it should fail, it ought not to be given up as 

 hopeless, until a great number of trials are made with 

 different kinds of vines, such as are most esteemed in 

 the countries from which they are brought, and are 

 most likely to suit our climate. § 



* See Young's Travels in France, and his map of the 

 climate of France, annexed to that work. 



t Since the above was prepared for the press, I have 

 seen in the National Intelligencer, an account of some 

 attempts to cultivate Hungarian vines in Maryland, 

 near Hagerstown, which are said to have aucceedetl. 



X Young's map of the climate of France, in which 

 the northern limit of the climate fit for the cultivation 

 of maize is placed about two degrees further south, 

 than that of vines ; both of them extending fiom the 

 coast to the interior, in a north-easterly direction. 



^ Nullum genus vitium conserendum est nisi fama, 

 nullum diutius conservandum nisi experimento proba- 

 tum. Columella, 1. xvi. iii. Sec. 2. 



