Notes and Gleanings. 171 



able, especially if there were other peach-trees in the neighborhood of the old 

 clingstone. It is true that the stock sometimes produces a change on the bud 

 or graft ; but we are not prepared to believe that it does to so great an extent as 

 to change a peach from a clingstone to a freestone. We once knew a very esti- 

 mable and truthful lady, who declared that she planted some quince-SQtd in a 

 flower-pot ; but, when we were called to see the plants, behold, they were every 

 one pear seedlings ! She has always believed she planted quince-seed. We do 

 know that it is a very easy thing to mistake. — Ed.] 



Longworth's Wine-House. — Nicholas Longwoith died at Cincinnati in 

 tiie year 1863, at the age of eighty. Fifty-nine years earlier, a flatboat had 

 borne him down the stream of the Ohio to a promising village whose census 

 had shown seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, and distant some eight hundred 

 miles from his native town of Newark, N.J. 



Entering, as a student, the law-office of the celebrated Jacob Burnet, he prose- 

 cuted that profession for twenty-five years, investing the profits in lands in and 

 about Cincinnati, and then retired to manage his estate. 



At the bar, he is described as having been quick, shrewd, impressive, ear- 

 nestly vehement, ready to defend the poor and the ruined ; in private life, ui> 

 right, free from show, benevolent to the wretched and outcast. 



Mr. Longworth gave much attention to general horticulture, but made special- 

 ties of grapes and strawberries. For the latter, in their perfection, we are 

 indebted to him : many years, with pen and purse, he prosecuted the ''straw- 

 berry controversy," until a strawberry-bed surrounded his city, and supplied 

 distant markets. But the successful management of the grape was the crown- 

 ing feature of his useful life. 



Perceiving the adaptability of the southward-sloping gravelly hills along the 

 Ohio to vine-growing, he began his experimen*^s nearly forty-five years ago, aim- 

 ing to acclimatize foreign vines, but failed of full success, after a persevering trial 

 of varieties from all Europe. About the year 182S, he began with native grapes. 

 A Catawba vine, taken from its native wilds in South Carolina, was seen in a 

 garden at Washington City by Major Adlum, who brought it to the notice of 

 Mr. Longworth. The latter eagerly welcomed the stranger to his gardens, and 

 introduced it to the American public ; saying as he did so, " I have done my 

 country a greater benefit than if I had paid the national debt." 



Success in the production of wine from the Catawba, the Isabella, and other 

 native grapes, brought him hearty congratulations from the advocates of tem- 

 perance, as a promoter of their cause. Vine-dressers flocked in thousands from 

 European vineyards, and settled along the banks of the Ohio, the Missouri, and 

 other rivers. 



Longworth devoted hundreds of acres to the grape, began the constniction 

 of wine-cellars whose capacity is a million of bottles, and lived to see the prod- 

 uct of wine along the shores of the Ohio River alone amount annually to 

 half a million of gallons. Patient, yet enthusiastic, he labored for still greater 

 results ; and in old age wished a new lease of life, only that he might produce 

 a better grape than the still unsurpassed Catawba. He had foresight and pub- 



