26 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



Arbois wine, which partakes shghtly of the Champagne char- 

 acter, would compete with our Catawba. 



"If we intend cultivating the grape for wine, we must rely 

 on our native grapes, and new varieties raised from their 

 seed. If I could get my lease of life renewed for twenty or 

 thirty years, I would devote my attention to the subject, and 

 I would cross our best native varieties with the best table and 

 wine grapes of Europe. We live in a great age. Discoveries 

 are daily made that confound us, and we know not where we 

 shall stop. We are told of experiments in mesmerism, as 

 wonderful as the grinding over system would be ; but I fear 

 the discovery will not be brought to perfection in time to an- 

 swer my purpose, and I must leave the subject with the 

 young generation. 



" 1 have heretofore wanted faith in the doctrine of French 

 Horticulturists, that to improve your stock of pears, you must 

 not select the seed of the finest fruit, but of the natural choke 

 pear. I am half converted to their views. The Catawba is 

 clearly derived from the common Fox grape. In raising 

 from its seed, even white ones are produced, but I have not 

 seen one equal to the parent plant, and in all, the white down 

 on the under side of the leaf, and the hairs on the stalk, 

 common to the wild Fox grape, are abundant." 



DURABILITY OF A VINEYARD. 



The oldest vineyard in this county is one of Mr. Long- 

 worth's, on Baldface. 



It was planted twenty-seven years ago, on ground trenched 

 with the spade two feet deep. It is still in vigorous bearing, 

 and has nothing to contend with, but the rot in wet seasons. 



Several other vineyards in the county are from fifteen to 

 eighteen, and a few, twenty years old. 



Dr. Mosher in an able article on Grape Culture, in the 

 "Farmer and Gardener," Yol. 6, p. 206, says : 



