MY VINETAKD. 139 



Milton recounts the daily labors of this venerable pair 

 in the following language : 



" On to their morning's rural work they haste, 

 Among sweet dews and flowers, where any row 

 Of fruit trees, over woody, reached too far 

 Their pampered boughs and needed hands to check 

 Fruitless embraces ; or tliey led the vine 

 To wed his elm ; she, spoused, ^bout him twines 

 Her marriageable arms, and with her brings 

 Her dower, the adapted clusters, to adorn 

 His barren leaves." 



" From the remotest periods of antiquity, the vine has 

 been celebrated as a type of plenty, and a symbol of hap- 

 piness. The pages of Scripture abound with allusions to 

 the vine as emblematical of prosperity ; and it is declared, 

 in describing the peaceful and flourishing state of the 

 kingdom of Israel, during the reign of Solomon, that Ju- 

 dah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his own 

 vine and under his fig tree." 



The history of the vine is almost or quite as old as that 

 of man. It has followed him as he has spread throughout 

 the world, and is now found in almost every clime. In 

 our own country, the first organized efforts at viue-grow-r 

 ing date back more than two hundred and thirty years. 

 These first efforts, however, met with little success, being 

 confined almost entirely to European varieties. It was 

 not until about forty years ago that the introduction of 

 the Catawba, a native seedling, gave an impetus to grape 

 culture, and brought about the wide-spread business 



