232 THE GRAPE. 



necessary to restrict the use of wine by severe laws. At one 

 time women were prohibited from using wine in any case whatever, 

 under the penalty of death, and men until they had attained the 

 age of thirty years. Cato mentions that the custom among rela- 

 tions of kissing women when they met, was to ascertain by their 

 breath if they had been drinking wine. 



" Pliny gives an account of a renowned Roman who so improved 

 his farm, near the city of Rome, that in one year the product of 

 his vines sold for four hundred thousand sesterces. 



" The vine was highly esteemed by the heathen nations, and the 

 invention of wine was ascribed by the Egyptians to Osiris, by the 

 Latins to Saturn ; and the Greeks elevated Bacchus to the rank of 

 a deity, for having brought the vine from Arabia Felix. 



" It is said by Pliny, that Bacchus was the first who ever wore 

 a crown, and as the god of vintage, his crown is formed of the 

 vine and its twining branches, bedecked with clusters of fruit. The 

 manufacture of wine was known to the people in the early part of 

 the Christian era, as we are informed that our Saviour, at a wed- 

 ding, changed the water into wine. 



"At several periods of the history of the world, the cultivation of 

 the vine was prohibited by severe laws, but since the twelfth century 

 a new impulse has been given, which extended through all portions 

 of Europe ; and we now find the banks of the Rhine, the moun- 

 tains of Hungary and Switzerland, and the plains of France and 

 Italy cultivated with more than two hundred varieties of the grape. 

 Those most highly esteemed in France for the manufacture of wine, 

 are the Burgundy grapes, three varieties of which produce the 

 champagne wine. The German and Swiss grapes are principally 

 celebrated as wine grapes, and four or five varieties are highly 

 esteemed for their prolific bearing and regular crops. 



" The Madeira grapes are all celebrated for wine. The table 

 grapes of France are principally the Chasselas, the Frontignac and 

 other Muscat grapes." Noah planted a vineyard and made wine ; 

 and among the bessings of the promised land are mentioned " wheat, 

 barley, and vine." 



Although we have record of wine being made from a native 

 grape in Florida as early as 1564, no vineyards of note are spoken 

 of in the United States until those established at Vevay and New 

 Harmony, Ind., Lexington, Ky., &c., about 1812, the originals of 

 which are are now mostly destroyed. 



Jefferson recorded his opinion, that " no nation is drunken where 

 wine is cheap ; and none sober where the dearness of wine substi- 

 tutes ardent spirits as the common beverage." A wish to sustain 

 and exemplify this assertion, if not to exhibit the profitableness of 

 the pursuit, would seem to have held sway in the minds of denizens 

 of the " Rhine of America," i.e., the borders of the Ohio river, 



