60 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Sept. 10, 1830- 



THE VINE. 



What a revolution has not the introduction of, 

 I cotton ah-eady effected ! What results does not | 

 the silk culture aheady promise us as our reward 



The reacli and the vine being natural produc- ^^ ^^^ distant day 

 lions of the same region of the East the opinion The Sugar Cane, for «hich France and the 

 has been tunformly adopted that a chn.ate favor- 1.^^;^,^^. „j. ^. ^^^ dependent o., the Indies, 



able to the one could not fud to be suitable to the ^^^^^^^ j.^^,,,^ ^ ^^^^^ important iten. a.nong our 

 other. And where, let me ask, does the former ; ^.oauctions, and promises ere long to be rat.ked 

 ihriTe to a greater degree than in many sections " 



of our country ? From the shores of Long Islan I, 

 and even much farther north, to the most southern 

 limits of the union, the peach flourishes and pro- 

 duces fruuofthe highest quality In the south of ^,,^ ^^^^,^ . ^^,j ^,_^ ^,_^^^_^^,^ ^,^^ ^ ^,^^ ^^^^^^^^^^ 



among our exports. 



The product of the vine in like manner will be 

 ours, with j.U its attendant advantages and bles- 

 sings. The olive culture is already extending hi 



France aud Italy, the culture of the more choice 

 and delicious varieties had given to those climes a 

 fame, to cope with which required the possession 

 by other countries of such as combined equal na- 

 tural merits. The choicest they could boast have 

 been latterly introduced among us, and we have 

 also originated many most luscious seminal varieties; 

 and those who possess thein know from their own 

 experience, and from the 0[)inions of others who 

 are familiar with the produce of the countries re» 

 I'erred to, that in this fruit we liave no longer a ri- 

 val in Europe. Hence we may deduce the most 

 sure prospects of an equal success for the Vine, 

 whose culture when compared with that of the 

 Peach, is yet in its infancy. 



The power, wealth, and hai)piness of France, are 

 principally attributable to the foresight she hasevin- 

 ced in the introduction to her soil of the most val- 

 uable natural productions of other countries. It 

 lias been remarked that perhaps no enterprise in 

 rural economy devised by the genius of a single 

 man, has carried with it more important results 

 than the first plantation of the Mulberry in the 

 garden of the Tuilleries, formed at the commence- 

 nicnt of the seventeenth century, by the command 

 of Henry IV. At this moment, ihough but litj„ 

 more than a century has elapsed, during only the 

 latter part of v/liich suitable attention has been 

 paid to the culture of silk, the value of the 

 raw material amounts to $4,700,000, and 

 that of its fabrication to above $16,000,000, 

 making a total of about $21,000,000. The Olive, 

 the Almond, and the Fig, were in like manner 

 adopted in the agriculture of France, together 

 ■with numerous other fruits of minor importance. 

 The vines indigenous to her soil were absolutely 

 worthless, and those originally brought from other 

 countries were not superior in quality to many of 

 the native kinds found in our forests ; and the 

 number of esteemed French varieties, even as 

 lata as the year 1720, was far less than we are al 

 ready able to enumerate as the natural products of 

 our woods and prairies, the spontaneous gifts of 

 nature, unaided by the hand of man. Yet, at the 

 present period, that adopted country of the vine, 

 has nearly 4,000,000 of acres devoted to its cul- 

 ture, which yield nn annual product of one thou 

 sand millions of gallons, of the average value of 

 more than $150,000,000. 



And what country ever presented a more eligi- 

 ble theatre for agricultural jiursuits than the Uni- 

 ted States ? The land ]irnprietors are not oppres- 

 sed by feudal tenures, exorbitant taxes, vexatious 

 tithes, or exhausting poor rates. The land is both 

 fertile and cheap, aud the great diversity of soil 

 qimI climate seem to invite the introduction of the 

 varied products of other climes. The country pen- 

 etrated in every direction, even to its remotest 

 bounds, by navigable rivers, and intersected by 

 canals and artificial roads, ofl^jrs every advantage 

 for speedy transmissson of its productions. 



orange, lemon, lime,citron, filbert, iiiaron, iiomegra- 

 nate, guava, stone pine, and almost every other 

 production which has been heretofore enumerated 

 among our importations, are destined hereafter to 

 become the abundant products of our own fields, 

 and articles of supply to other nations. Such 

 are the happy coincidences of country, ofclimatr, 

 and of government, that all which is required of 

 us is but to exercise our judgment and our skill in 

 perfecting the advantages which nature has so lib- 

 erally tendered ; by the exercise of which, the bal- 

 ance of trade, of wealth, and of power, cannot 

 fail to be for ever secured to us. 



The present extent of American vineyards, and 

 the rapid advances now making in their forma- 

 tion, do not properly constitute part of the present 

 volume ; but on that subject the most ample and 

 detailed information will be given in the ensuing 

 one. I will here therefore only give some cursory 

 remarks on that head from the pen of an intelli- 

 gent writer of Pennsylvania. 



' The vine culture seems to have become a fa- 

 vorite pursuit with the agriculturists of the present 

 day, and forms an object of great promise in York 

 county, Pa. Experiments have already shown 

 that the vine will not only flourish in the poorer 

 soils of that county, but that excellent wine can 

 be made there, and that vineyards will become as 

 profitable as any other agricultural pursuit. A 

 portioB of the lauds in York county is poor and 

 thin, commonly called barrens, and it has been 

 proved that the vine succeeds well on it, and twen- 

 ty acres of it, which can now be bought at from 

 $6 to $10 per acre, when planted with vines, and 

 al maturity, will be more productive to the owner 

 than two hundred acres of the best land in the 

 county, devoted to other culture. There arc per- 

 haps not less than thirty or forty vineyards within 

 twenty miles of the borough of York, and nearly 

 all commenced within tlu-ee years. Should this 

 disposition increase, and as a consequence the 

 wine-press be made to take the place of the distil- 

 lery, it will benefit the morals of the community. 

 Among what are called civilized nations, the vice 

 of drunkenness has always been found to prevail 

 most extensively where the vine is not cultivated ; 

 while on tlie other hand, where that culture is 

 widely extended, the temperance of the people is 

 proverbial.' 



Similar sentiments and like prospects of success 

 seem to pervade all parts of our country where 

 the culture of the vine has received merited atten- 

 tion ; and the daily increasing devotion to the sub- 

 ject in the formation of additional vineyards, will 

 ere long cause each section of our republic to re- 

 spond to the efforts of the others. 



The information which I have elicited on this 

 head from every part of the union, and which wilt 

 form part of the matter of the ensuing volume, 

 evinces, when couoentrated, advances so much 



greater than could well have been anticipated 

 this early stage of our progress, that I doubt not il is 

 will strike with amazement even the most sanguine 

 friends of the vine. Sufiice it here to say, that a 

 degree of perseverance and enthusiasm seems to 

 pervade all the votaries of this delightful i)ursuit, 

 and a warm and friendly interchange of views and 

 sentiments exists among them, which has been 

 comparatively unknown in other species of culture ; 

 and although the operators, from being dissemina- 

 ted over so great an extent of territory, are conse- 

 quently more widely separated from each other, 

 still the existence of a connecting link, by friendly 

 co-o|)eration in one common cause, may justly and 

 appropriately assimilate their united exertions to 

 that joyous period in the history of France, when, 

 during the reign of Probus, thousands of ail ages 

 and sexes united in one spontaneous and enthusi- 

 astic effort for the restoration of their vineyards. 

 Nor indeed when the far greater limits of our ter- 

 ritory are considered, can the combined eftbrts of 

 our fellow-countrymen fail to produce effects even 

 more important, from the greater extent of their 

 influence. 



The opinions of some political writers, that we 

 should continue to import adulterated wines anJ 

 spirits of all kinds, in onler to afford the govern- 

 ment the means of thence deriving a revenue of 

 a per ccntage on their value, even at the sacrifice of 

 the morals of the nation, and the diminution of its 

 wealth, by a course seemingly less objectionable, 

 because less direct ; but which is not less fatal in le 

 exhausting our resources: seem fast merging to |:i 

 that oblivion, where the desire and the pride of a 

 truly national independence should consign them ; 

 and we may hope that the day is not far distant, it 

 when America will fully establish and claim a tl 

 rivalry with the most favored lands of the vine and u 

 the olive, and proudly disclaim being tributary to ,( 

 any foreign clime. 



NEGLECT OF ADVANTAGES. 



We do not make ail the use we might, either of 

 our materials or of.our knowledge. 



Thus the lahurnum tree, which the French some- 

 times call the green ebony of the Mps, is one of the 

 most beautiful of woods for furniture, yet it is ael- 

 dom or ever used for that purpose. 



It has been proved in many parts of France, 

 that the walnut tree, if grafted, produces tenfold j 

 yet I believe that walnut is seldom or ever sub- 

 mitted to that process, at least in this country. 



Mr Dawes, of Slough, discovered that the cov- 

 ering of a wall with 4/act pai"n< would facilitate 

 the ripening of wall-fruit, and yet not one wall in 

 twenty thousand is so paintcfl. 



The knowledge that charcoal is the best ingre- 

 dient in the foundation of buildings erected in- 

 moist places, is as old as Theodorus, who accord- 

 ing to Diogenes Laertius, proposed the forming 

 the foundation of the Temple of Ephesiis witli 

 that material, because it would become so solid 

 that no water couid penetrate it. This, I say, has 

 been known more than two -thousand five hun- 

 dred years, and yet I am not aware that charcoal 

 has ever been used in this country, for the jiur- 

 pose above referred to. — London Mag. 



Preserving Seeds. If seeds are intended to 

 sent a great distance, or it is wished to presri 

 them a long time, they should be wrapped 

 absorbent [laper, and surrounded by moist browj* fu 

 sugar- 



