VOL I. 



ROCHESTER, DEC. 31, 1831. 



NO. 52. 



PUBLISHED BY L. TUCKER <to CO. 



At the Office of the Daily Advertiser. 

 Terms — S-.51 per milium, or 



$-2 00 if paid in advance. 



N. GOODSELL, EDITOR 



THE VINE. 



Many of the farmers of the United States, and 

 also of Upper Canada, are discouraged concerning 

 the cultivation of the Grape, being under the im- 

 pression, that they are in a more northern lati- 

 tude than those parts of France where the grape 

 and vine are made the staple productions of the 

 country. As it is not to be supposed that every 

 young farmer is provided with maps of Europe 

 or that he is so familiar with the geography of 

 different countries, that their location in regard to 

 tatitude, is recognised on heaving them named, we 

 will make some comparison between some of the 

 vine-growing departments of France, and corres- 

 ponding latitudes in America. 



France is located between the 42d and 51st de- 

 crees of north latitude, and between the 7th degree 

 of west, and 5th degree of east longitude, from 

 London. It is divided into eighty-eight depart- 

 ments, corresponding somewhat in extent to our 

 counties. The south of France corresponds in 

 latitude with the northern boundary of Pennsyl- 

 vania, and her northern boundaries extend to a 

 "latitude that would not only include every part of 

 the United States north of Pennsylvania, but the 

 most of Upper Canada also. But the northern 

 boundaries of France, are not the northern boun 

 ilaries of the cultivation of the grape. The wines 

 of Moselle are celebrated in Europe, and those 

 made in the neighborhood of Coblentz, situated 

 upon the Rhine, between the fiftieth and fifty-first 

 degrees of north latitude, are considered excel- 

 lent. 



In judging of the temperature of a country, lat 

 itude is not only to be attended to, but the altitude 

 or its height above the level of the sea; 600 fee! 

 altitude being considered equal to one degree of 

 latitude, and the difference in the mean tempera- 

 ture of the same latitude, either in Europe and 

 America, is supposed to be ten degrees in favor of 

 Europe. But the mean temperature of a country 

 does not determine what vegetables may be suc- 

 cessfully cultivated in it ; for although our win- 

 ters in the state of New-York are colder than in 

 the soudi of France, yet our summers are much 

 Warmer; therefore, die temperature of the sum- 

 mer, which is important to the successful cultiva- 

 tion of the grape, should be compared by the 

 growth of other plants. If we take Indian corn 

 for example, we shall find that the grape is culti- 

 vated three hundred miles farther north than corn 

 will perfect itself, and as that is cultivated to the 

 northern boundaries of the United States, and al- 

 so in the Canadas, it will be difficult to define the 

 northern boundaries of the cultivation of the 

 grape, in America. We were told by a gentle 

 man at Montreal, that grapes ripened well in hi; 

 garden, but that they needed covering in th e win- 

 ter: tins is practiced in many vineyards hi Swit- 

 zerland, and in the north of France. Having 

 these data, and knowing the difference of latitude 

 and altitude, we shall be enabled to make more 



There is a great variety in regard to elevation in 

 different parts of France. On the south and west 

 she is bounded by the shores of the Atlantic, and 

 on the south-east by those of the Mediterranean 

 Although a part of the southern boundary is the 

 chain of the Pyrenees, which divides France from 

 Spain, yet these are abrupt, and do not extend far 

 into the country, so that France may be consider 

 ed a vast inclined plane, rising from a level of the 

 sea on the west, to the summits of the Alps on 

 the east, which may be considered its eastern 

 boundary. Some idea may be formed of the ele- 

 vation of that part denominated Framclie Comte, 

 lying mostly between the forty-seventh and forty- 

 eighth degrees of north latitude; when we con- 

 sider it is there that the following rivers take their 

 rise, viz. the Rhine, which after running in a 

 northerly direction more than three hundred miles 

 takes a westerly course, and empties itself near 

 Roterdam. The Seine takes a northwesterly 

 course, and after passing through Paris, empties 

 itself at Havre de Grace, more than three hun- 

 dred miles from its source. The Loire, after a 

 westerly course of five hundred miles, empties 

 itself at Nantes, and the Rhone running nearly 

 south rbr more than three hundred miles, puts into 

 the Mediteiranean, near Marseilles. The height 

 of some of the mountains, in the neighborhood of 

 Franche Comte, is so great, that they are capt 

 with perpetual snow, and are found to be 6300 

 feet above the level of the sea. It is in this eleva- 

 ted part of France, that the celebrated champagne 

 wines are manufactured. In the department of 

 Marne (so named from a stone called Marne, 

 which is dug out of the earth and used as a ma- 

 nure) which crosses the 49th degree of latitude, 

 about fifty-three thousand acres of land are cov- 

 ered with vineyards, which produce on an aver- 

 age about seventeen millions of gallons of wine, 

 annually, worth about five and an half millions of 

 dollars; and the total amount of wine manufac- 

 tured in France yearly, is valued at three hundred 

 millions of dollars. It may be said by seme that 

 the winters in the north of France arc not so long 

 or severe as in the United States in the same lati 

 tude, and of course their summers are longer than 

 ours. In looking over a work published in 18-36 

 by Dupour, a Swiss Vigneion, who emigrated to 

 this country, we find some data by which we may 

 compare the precosity of vegetation, in the differ- 

 ent countries. Under date of 2d July, 1816, we 

 find the following as taken from his journal. " We 

 continued to descend the Rhone with great rapidi- 

 ty. We are passing Cateroties, where a very re- 

 nowned wine is made. the season hav- 



ing been this year extraordinarily late ; the grapes 

 being only now in bloom about Lyons." Lyons 

 is about three degrees and an half south of the de- 

 partment of Marne. In looking over our Floral 



alendar for June 7th, contained in 23d No. vol. 

 1. page 179, we find the following: " Roses, Lil 

 lies, Pinks, and Grapes are now in flower in the 

 gardens." — By this it seems there was a differ- 

 ence of about thirty days between the flowering of 

 grapes in Lyons, 1816, and those of Rochester, 



1831. Now if we allow that season to have been 



three weeks later than usual, which all will ac- 

 curate calculations than" we should otherwise.! [knqwleage would make the season, as the qtj(W |ttc. :! 



observes, "extraordinarily late," there would h 

 left one week in favor of Rochester for early ve- 

 getation. 



Another argument in our favor as to the certain 

 ty of cultivating grapes with success, is, that we 

 have native grapes which are perfectly hardy, 

 and are greater bearers than the European grapes, 

 and which are found to possess the necessary 

 qualities for making good wine. 



The greatest obstacle which will be met within 

 the cultivation of grapes, for making wine, or 

 rather in the sale of wine after it is made, is, that 

 there is a set of men among us, who may justly 

 be termed wine bibbers, and who claim the right 

 of giving character to every kind of wine offered 

 to the public. Many of these have been wine tas- 

 ters for a long time, and have accustomed them- 

 selves to drink Old Madeira, which is a mixture 

 of wine and Brandy : to such, after having drank 

 strong Madeira, pure wines, of whatever quality 

 they are, will taste insipid, and would be condem- 

 ned, as old Madeira would in wine countries, or 

 in this, by those who have never been in the hab- 

 it of using strong drink. 



But it should be remembered that wines in 

 France and Spain, are not used for promoting in- 

 toxication, but to allay thirst and promote health ; 

 and for these purposes they are evidently better 

 calculated than strong beer, cider, or alcohol and 

 water. Mr. Prince concludes his preface to his 

 History of the Vine, in the following manner. — 

 " Already, for years, has the vine been most suc- 

 cessfully cultivated on the Rhine ; and in latitude 

 50" the most choice Rhenish wines are made — 

 Recent accounts tell us of Vineyards having been 

 established in the more northern parts of Germa 

 ny, and in high latitudes in Russia; and the 

 Swiss have been for a course of years, most plen- 

 tifully supplied with wine from their own soil 



Shall then America alone be debarred from this, 

 one of the bountiful gifts of nature"? Shall a 

 country possessing every variety of climate which 

 is combined in all the wine countries of Europe, 

 and extending through all the degrees of latitude 

 which are there deemed the most general to its 

 growth and produce, be said to be totally inap 

 propriate to its success? Shall it be said that a 

 plant which culture has accommodated to almost 

 every clime to which it has been introduced, can 

 find no spot whereon to flourish, in a country ex 

 tending from the 25th to the 47th degree of lati 

 tude; and that we can boast of no such congenial 

 soil in an empire, whose bounds are the St. Law- 

 rence and the Gulf of Mexico, and whose settle- 

 ments already extend from the Atlantic to the 

 sources of the Missouri? It is high time such 

 delusions of blinded theorists, should give way to 

 the lights of reason, and of judgment, and that 

 the culture of the vine, to every variety of which 

 we have a soil and climate suitable to offer, should 

 assume that importance to which it has already 

 attained, in countries possessing comparatively 

 few advantages. Let then the beams of intelli- 

 gence, which are imparting so much benefit tv 

 mankind by their wide diffusion, disperse these, 

 clouds of ignorance and error, from the. enlig'lv. 

 ened Horticulturists of the American. Repulv 



