38 CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



home, only a small class of persons in this country will ever 

 know what pure light wines really are ; what is sold as such 

 by the retail dealers in the country generally, is so 

 brandied and manufactured, as to become worse than ardent 

 spirits itself." 



Dr. Flagg, in his report to the Cincinnati Horticultural 

 Society for 1 846, justly observes : — " I am confident that 

 the introduction of pure light wine as a common beverage, 

 will produce a great national and moral reform — one that 

 will be received by our temperance brethren, ere long, as a 

 national blessing — one that will complete the work they have 

 already begun. The temperance cause is rapidly preparing 

 public sentiment for the introduction of pure American wine. 

 So long as public taste remains vitiated by the use of malt 

 and alcohoUc drinks, it will be impossible to introduce light, 

 pleasant wines, except to a limited extent ; but just in pro- 

 portion as strong drinks are abandoned, a more wholesome 

 one will be substituted. Instead of paying millions to for- 

 eigners, as we now do, for deleterious drinks, as brandy and 

 wines, let us produce from our own hill-sides a wholesome 

 beverage that will be within the reach of all, the 2^oor as well 

 as the rich." 



Mr. W. R- Prince, of New York, in his very able article 

 on American Vineyards, in the HorticuHurist, Vol. 1, p. 393, 

 remarks : " The pure juice of the grape is an innocent 

 beverage, grateful to our senses, and nourishing to the sys- 

 tem. That man has abused and perverted its use, is no argu- 

 ment against the article in its pure and natural state, for what 

 gift of Providence is there, that has not been abused ? In 

 every country where wine is produced in abundance, intem- 

 perance is scarcely known, and in this respect the vine-growing 

 countries will compare most favorably with their more north- 

 ern neighbors, where alcoholic drinks so abound." 



President Jefeerson has recorded his opinion, that — ''No 

 nation i? drunken where wine is cheap ; and none sol^r where 



