GRAPES AND WINE. 



-KILLING ANIMALS. 



437 



his crop the ninth year, when his share yield- 

 ed him $i!00. The tenth year his wine 

 yielded him about $C00. So large a sum, 

 and all in silver, bewildered the old man's 

 imagination. He made me his best bow, 

 went into the interior, bought land, and began 

 a vineyard on his own account. His latitude 

 was too far north for the grape, and after 

 six years' absence the old man returned nearly 

 penniless, and began a new vineyard on 4 

 acres of ground, adjoining the old one, then 

 and now under charge of one of his sons-in- 

 law. He will next season make some wme ; 

 but to cheer the old man's spirits, we have 

 enabled him occasionally to take his accus- 

 tomed glass of wine, and sing his old song 

 under the shade of his favorite tree. 



Most of my tenants have occupied their 

 present vineyards from 10 to 25 years, and 

 are contented and happy, if not rich. One 

 of them who works harder than any of the 

 others, and keeps his family at work, and de- 

 votes most of his time to his vineyard, made 

 from his wine last year $1,400. But I would 

 not recommend the cultivation of the grape for 

 profit to per.sons who hire all and work none. 



Our wines have always met a ready sale 

 in the city, and bring from $1 to $1 50 per 

 gallon. The grape culture is now spreading 

 rapidly, and we must look out for a market 

 abroad. The price will depend on the manu- 

 facturer. In the wine countries of Europe it 

 is a standing proverb that " a poor man can- 

 not make good wine." The reason is obvi- 

 ous: he is compelled to sell his wine when 

 new, and cannot devote the necessary atten- 

 tion, and wait till his wine is five or six years 

 of age, before he sells it. 



It is there also said that all depends on soil 

 and exposure ; and while the wine at one 

 vineyard brings $12 per dozen, the wine of 

 an adjoining vineyard will not command one- 

 quarter the sum. In this doctrine I place 

 no reliance. With us, I find the quality 

 chiefly depends on the care and attention of 

 the manufacture. Wine requires much great- 

 er skill and care in the manulacture than is 

 requisite in making cheese and butter. What 

 more simple than the making of butter, yet 

 one tenant on a farm will make butter of a 

 Bupei'ior quality, while the butter made by 

 another tenant on the same farm, with equal 

 facilities, is scarcely fit for use, and will not 

 command half the price of his brother tenant. 

 In Europe a landlord often commences with 

 selling his wine at $3 per dozen, and ends by 

 selling it at $12 or more, as his reputation be- 

 comes established. A manufacturer who 

 values the reputation of his vineyard, in un- 

 favorable seasons sells his wine in the cask, 

 without attaching his name to it, at a low price. 



The cultivation of the grape for wine in 

 our country was attempted about fifty years 

 since by a company at Sjiring Hill, near 

 Philadelphia. They tried foreign wine grapes 

 and found them iinsuited to our climate. 

 They found one grape only to stand the cli- 

 mate and bear well. 



(837) 



The idea of manufacturing wine from a 

 native grape would in that day have been 

 hooted at, and tlie manager wisely, if not 

 honestly, called it the Cape gi-ape, though 

 taken from the banks of the Schuylkill — leav- 

 ing it to be inferred that the wine was from 

 the Cape of Good Hope. The next attempt 

 was by the Swiss emigi-ants at Vevay, In- 

 diana. They found the grape of Switzerland 

 unsuited to our climate; and hearing of the 

 Cape grape succeeding at Spring Hill pro- 

 cured it, and for many years cultivated it, 

 making a hard, rough, red wine, excellent 

 for sangaree, but not relished as a table wine. 



Their vineyards have gone down, and the 

 Cape grape (Schuylkill Muscadel) is now 

 but little cultivated. It is one of our surest 

 bearers, and pressed as soon as gathered, and 

 manufactured after the manner of Madeira 

 and Teneriffe wines, when at a proper age it 

 greatly resembles them. 



We are indebted to Major Adlam, of the 

 District of Columbia, for the introduction of 

 the Catawba, our best wine grape. He erred 

 in making from it a sweet wine. The Major 

 was compelled to cultivate it with a view to 

 immediate profit, and injured the reputation 

 of his wine, in seasons when the Catawba did 

 not produce a full crop, by mixing with them 

 the wild grapes of the woods in his vicinity. 

 By the introduction of that grape he was a 

 great benefactor to the nation, and the day is 

 not distant when the banks of the Ohio will 

 rival the banks of the Rhine, in the quality 

 and quantity of the wine produced. Our 

 German emigrants are the people who will 

 accomplish it. Our hills suitable for wme are 

 of little value for other cultivation. Give a 

 German ten acres of this land, and if he has 

 a wife and children he will live in great lux- 

 ury. He will never want for his two great- 

 est of all luxuries, wine and sour-crout. His 

 children, however small, not only aid him in 

 the cultivation, but his wife, dui-ing the sum- 

 mer and fall, does the greater part of the la- 

 bor in the vineyard. The poor vine-dressers 

 in Germany are seldom so rich as to own a 

 horse, and therefore over-estimate their value. 

 Yet greatly as they value the acquisition of a 

 broken-down pony in this country, it does 

 not lessen their estimation of the great value 

 of their wives in the vineyards. A very hon- 

 est Dutch tenant of mine, who was so unfor- 

 tunate as to lose his wife, observed to me, 

 "He might just as well have lost his horse." 



Best Time Fok Killing Animals. — It has lately 

 been discovered that the flesh of animals which are 

 killed in the middle of the night will keep much 

 longer than it will when they are killed in the day 

 time ; and it is for this reason preferred by those 

 who prepare potted meats. This circumstance is 

 very singular, for it proves that the tlesh is fittest for 

 keeping when taken from the animal at the time , 

 when the respiration is slowest and the temperature 

 of the animal lowest. It is well known that the flesh 

 of animals which have been hard driven will not 

 keep at all. After what has been stated we need not 

 be surprised, as this quickens the respiration and 

 highteas the temperature. [Dumas's Chemie. 



