436 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



fall, as soon as the leaves have fallen, and at 

 the same time plant out cuttings. Wliere 

 planted in the i'all, I should plant so as to 

 leave the upper bud even with the surface, 

 and throw a little soil over it, and remove in 

 the spring, as soon as the severe frost is over. 



We gather our gi'apes as soon as they are 

 fully ripe. In many pai-ts of Europe they are 

 suffered to hang on the vines till past matu- 

 rity. This adds to the saccharine principle, 

 but I find it injurious to the aroma and flavor 

 of the wine. I cultivate none but red or 

 black grapes. If red wine be the olyect, we 

 mash the grapes, and have a partial fermenta- 

 tion before pressing, to bring out the coloring 

 matter, which is contained in the skin. If a 

 light colored wine be the object, we mash 

 the grapes, and press them out as soon as gath- 

 ered. We carefully pick from the bunches 

 all rotten and gi-een fruit. As soon as the 

 must is in the cask I move it to the wine- 

 room, which is sometimes in the cellar, and 

 at other times aliove gi'ound. In neither case 

 has it ever run into the acetous fermentation. 



We formerly added sugar to all our must 

 before fennentation — to the Schuylkill Mus- 

 cadel, from 12 to IG oz. ; to the Catawba, 

 from G to 10 oz. to the gallon — behig gov- 

 erned by the quantity of saccharine matter in 

 the must, and also the quantity of leaven. Of 

 late years, if the grapes are ripe, we use no 

 sugar to the Catawba grape, and never add 

 spirit in mtd^iug wine from other grapes. Of 

 the character of Madeira or I'ort, we gener- 

 ally use sugar before fermentation, and add 

 from five to eight per cent, of brandy after 

 the fermentation is over, to make it resemble 

 those wines to which brjuidy is always added. 

 The Isabella makes a very indiftijrent wine, 

 unless 24 to 32 oz. of sugar is added to the 

 gallon of must, according to the maturity of 

 the fruit, when it makes a superior sweet 

 wine, equal to the Ijest imported. 



The Reports of some of our Horticultural 

 Societies, and j)ublications of some of our 

 vine-dressers, speak of .500 gallons of wine 

 to the acre as an average yield. There is 

 more of poetry than ti-nlh in these statements. 

 After 30 years of cultivation, I deem 200 gal- 

 lons to the acre a full average crop. The 

 most I have known grown on two acres was 

 1,300 gallons from the Catawba grape. This 

 I consider our most vahiable grape for wine, 

 and manufactured with care and left till of 

 proper age, will rival the best diy Hock. 

 After two years' trial, I am satisfied it will 

 also make a superior sparkling Chan)i)agne, 

 and am now erecting a vault and building to 

 have it maniifactuied extensively. From the 

 Isabella grape I one year made from 1-14 of 

 an acre 10.5 gallons, being at the rate of 1,470 

 gallons to the acre. This grape ripens une- 

 ([ually with us, and is very subject to the rot. 

 The Missouri bids fair to be valuable as a 

 wine grape ; and the Herbemont would be 

 very valuable both lor the table and wine if 

 it were less subject to rot. I have tried the 

 foreign grapes e-xteusively for wine at great 



(83G) 



expense for many years, and have abandoned 

 them as unfit for our climate. In the accli- 

 mation of plants I do not believe. The 

 white Sweetwater grape is not more hardy 

 with me than it was thirty years since, and 

 does not bear as Well. I have hied them iu- 

 all soils, and with all exposures. 



I obtained 5,000 plants from Madeira, 

 10,000 from France ; and one-half of them, 

 consisting of twenty varieties of the most 

 celebrated wine grapes from the mountains 

 of .Jura, in the extreme norlhem part of 

 France, where the vine region ends ; I also 

 obtained them from the vicinity of Paris, Bor- 

 deaux, and from Germany. I went to the 

 expense of trenching 100 feet square on a 

 side hill, placing a layer of stone and gravel 

 at the bottom, with a drain to cany off the 

 water, and j)ut in a compost of rich soil and 

 sand three feet deep, and planted on it a great 

 variety of foreign wine grapes. All failed ; 

 and not a single plant is left in my vineyards. 

 I would advise the cultivation of native 

 grapes alone, and the raising of new varieties 

 from their seed. It may be advisable to cross 

 the Catawba with some of the best foreign 

 wine grapes, and raise from the seed. 



I have 24 vineyards, and about C7 acres 

 of vineyard in bearing, and about 32 acres 

 recently planted, or ready for planting in the 

 spring. Last year there was a partial failure 

 of the crop, but we made 300 barrels of wine, 

 being 200 barrels less than we calculated on 

 making before the rot commenced in the 

 grapes. Of the cost and profit of cultivation, 

 I am not fully competent to speak ; for profit 

 has not been my object, nor have I devoted 

 that attention to my tenants that a regard for 

 profit would require. I commenced with 

 the firm belief that the climate and soil in 

 this region were admirably calculated for the 

 cultivation of the grape and manufacture of 

 wine, and though I had little hope of succeed- 

 ing in the cultivation of foreign wine grapes, 

 I determined to give them a fair trial, and re- 

 solved to collect native grapes from different 

 parts of America, believing, as the Hughes 

 crab-apple of Virginia gave us better cider 

 than any foreign apple, I might find a native 

 grape capable of making a superior wine. 



About twenty-five years since, I com- 

 menced settling Germans on my hilly gi-ound, 

 and setting off to each from 12 to 25 acres. 

 They were generally very poor. There 

 were no written contracts, but the under- 

 standing was, I was to furnish all grape-cut- 

 tings and frtiit-trees wanted ; I paid for 

 trenching and benchingportions of the grotind, 

 and gave them such aid as was necessary at 

 the outset. I was to have half the wine at 

 the press, and half the amount of sales of the 

 other fruit. All other articles raised on the 

 place were for their own benefit. The gi-apes 

 were generally neglected, as it took some 

 years to l)ring them into bearing, while the 

 potatoes and sour-crout yielded an immediate 

 income. My first tenant, instead of having a 

 crop of grapes the third or fourth year, had 



