VINEYARDS. 4 " 



VINEYARDS. 



Ever since " Noah began to be a husbandman, and 

 planted a vineyard," the Grape has occupied a place 

 more or less prominent among the cultivated fruits in 

 some portions of almost every civilized country. Grow- 

 ing, (as history informs us) in its highest perfection in 

 Syria and Asia — this luscious fruit and the unrivaled 

 beverage it produced, early recommended it to the 

 special notice of the patriarchal tillers of the soil, who 

 planted vineyards long before any considerable attention 

 was given to the cultivation of other varieties of fruit. 

 As civilization advanced, the vine accompanied it first 

 to Egypt, Greece and Sicily, and subsequently to Italy, 

 Spain, France and Britain, to which the latter place it 

 was introduced by the Romans about two hundred years 

 after the Christian Era. * The Grapes of the old world 

 were celebrated for their excellent wine producing 

 qualities, and the products of vineyards, in the same 

 localities at the present day, still retain this distin- 

 guishing charactertstic. In France the cultivation of 

 the vine is very extensive. Goodrich informs us, that 

 5,000,000 acres are devoted to that object, and that the 

 estimated value of the products in 1854 amounted to 

 $130,000,000. Although in no other country is there 

 so large a part of the territory devoted to this object. 

 Still, in nearly all the minor states of Europe the Grape 

 furnishes no very inconsiderable part of the products 

 of the soil. Plants and seeds of foreign varieties were 

 brought to this country by Colonists during the first 

 fifty years after its settlement, but no considerable 

 attention seems to have been given to their propagation 

 until aLer the close of the Revolutionary War. After 



