No. 11. 



Culhire of the Grape. 



349 



the conveniences and elegances purchased 

 of the milliner and the mercer, may be sub- 

 stituted, in a great measure, by their own 

 handicraft. Your own part is nothing, but 

 to deprive those you love of that to which 

 they have been accustomed, is, we know, a 

 bitter pill; but it must be taken. In the 

 great fall of agricultural products, there is 

 no help for it. 



Do not tell us that you already practise 

 economy to its fullest extent. My dear sir,. 

 you don't begin to know the meaning of the 

 word. What is your income J About $1,500 

 — well, go to the North and see how a farmer 

 with an income of $2,000 lives, compare your 

 expenditures with his, and then see if you 

 know anything about economy. And whilst 

 you are there, observe the difference between 

 his case and yours — he probably has at the 

 end of the year eight hundred or a thousand 

 dollars to devote to the improvement of his 

 land, which improvement probably secures 

 him a surplus of twelve or fifteen hundred 

 dollars at the end of the next year, and so 

 he goes on, getting richer and richer, whilst 

 you are getting poorer and poorer. Suppose 

 your situations to be nearly the same in 

 1845, work this thing out, and see where 

 yon will both be in 1855. 



There is one point upon which we will 

 take the liberty of giving you the gentlest 

 hint in the world. Be not afraid in this 

 proposed system of reform of any opposition 

 from your wife. Come out like a man and 

 explain to her the necessity for it ; women 

 are always more frugal and self-denying 

 than men ; we will answer for her. 



It is astonishing how not only the price, 

 but the real value of land, is affected by the 

 economical habits of a neighbourhood. We 

 were sensibly struck with this fact in a con- 

 versation last summer with an intelligent 

 gentleman from Rockingham. We were 

 both at the time in the county of Albemarle, 

 and something was said about the high price 

 for which land was sold in that county. 

 The Rockingham gentleman remarked, that 

 similar land in his own county, not at all 

 more productive, farther from market, would 

 sell for one-third more monej^ He was then 

 asked, why he did not sell in Rockingham 

 and purchase in Albemarle. He replied, be- 

 cause he found, upon a fair calculation, that 

 the land was cheaper in Rockingham than 

 in Albemarle; that is, that owing to the 

 different habits and customs of the people, 

 he could lay up more money from an invest- 

 ment in the one than the other. This is 

 sound reasoning, and it is the reasoning 

 upon which men act. This is the reasoning 

 by which men are induced to give a hun- 

 dred dollars an acre for lands in New York 



or Pennsylvania, whilst lands equally pro- 

 ductive can be purchased in Virginia for 

 half the money. 



From the Cincinnati Farmer and Gardener. 

 Culture of the Grape. 



As public attention at the present time 

 seems to be somewhat enlisted in the cul- 

 ture of the grape, and as its success is 

 pretty well established in the vicinity of 

 Cincinnati, where it is rapidly extending, a 

 brief sketch of the most approved mode of 

 establishmg a vineyard, may be acceptable 

 to some of your readers. 



The first step, then, is the preparation of 

 the ground. Tlie sides or tops of limestone 

 hills are generally chosen for the location, 

 where the water runs off readily. South 

 and south-eastern exposures are the best in 

 this climate. Three modes of preparing the 

 ground are usually adopted here. The first 

 consists merely in deep ploughing, with a 

 common plough, as for potatoes, and making 

 the surface fine and mellow with the har- 

 row. The second method goes one step 

 further, and a second furrow is cut in the 

 bottom of the first; in the bottom of the se- 

 cond furrow a subsoil plough is run, which 

 breaks the ground altogether to the depth of 

 sixteen or eighteen inches ; it is then har- 

 rowed and prepared as in the first. The 

 third method is, by thoroughly trenching 

 with the spade to the depth of not less than 

 two feet. If the hill side is steep, say at an 

 elevation of twenty or thirty degrees with 

 the horizon, terraces are also raised from 

 two to four feet in height, and extending up 

 the hill from twenty to sixty feet each, ac- 

 cording to the acclivity of the surface. By 

 this last mode, the top soil is all thrown into 

 the bottom of the trenches, and the subsoil, 

 which is generally clayey, thrown upon the 

 top, and left sufficiently smooth for planting. 

 Where stones are found in the soil, they are 

 thrown out on the surface, as the trenching 

 progresses, up the hill ; and, if in sufficient 

 quantity, are laid up in walls to support the 

 terraces. The terraces are made to run 

 horizontally along the hill-side, or nearly 

 so, with an open ditch for a drain at the 

 upper edge of each terrace, and a similar 

 horizontal ditch as often as once in eighty 

 or a hundred feet, where the ground is not 

 terraced. These drains should lead to the 

 lowest point in the vineyard, where a suit- 

 able drain should be constructed down the 

 hill, to carry off the surplus water in heavy 

 showers, and may be covered like a culvert, 

 or left open. In each case, the vines are 

 planted in rows, four feet apart, if to bs 



