March.] THE VINEYARD. 235 



they can discover those best adapted to their respective soils and 

 climates. 



There is not the least doubt but the vines of any temperate cli- 

 mate can be naturalized in any state in the. Union in a very short 

 time: for there is an astonishing facility in plants to accommodate 

 themselves to soil and climate, and in very few more than in the 

 vine. The helianthus annum, or common annual sunflower, is a 

 native of Mexico and Peru; and yet we all know that it now grows 

 in every part of the Union where introduced, as well as if it were 

 indigenous. The helianthus tuberosus, or what is commonly called 

 the Jerusalem artichoke, is a tropical plant, being a native of Brazil, 

 and is become naturalized to our climates, as well as to those of 

 Europe, as far north as St. Petersburg, and perhaps farther. The 

 cherry tree, when first introduced into Italy by Lucullus, a Roman 

 general, from the city of Cerasus, in Pontus, whence its name 

 Prunus Cerasus, was there treated as a tender exotic; by degrees 

 it had crept into Britain, where it was treated for some time in like 

 manner; and experience now proves that it thrives in America as 

 well as in Italy, Britain, or Pontus itself. Thousands of other 

 instances could be adduced of the wisdom and goodness of the 

 Creator in furnishing plants with those accommodating powers; but 

 the vine has manifested itself in so many, and so universally, that 

 it is unnecessary to recapitulate them; yet we frequently meet with 

 people who say "it will never succeed here!!" 



It may, however, be proper to remark, that where the peach 

 tree perfects its fruit in open field culture, so will the vine; the 

 latter is even capable of bearing greater degrees of heat, and of 

 producing fruit in perfection in higher latitudes than the former, 

 manifested by the quantity of wine made in many places in the 

 south of England, from its productions in open vineyard culture; 

 whilst there they could not have a single peach from a thousand 

 trees cultivated in the same way, principally owing to the want of 

 a sufficiency of summer heat to ripen the young wood; and mild as 

 their winters are, in comparison to ours, they, under such circum- 

 stances, generally destroy the pithy and unripened shoots of the 

 peach, without doing near so much injury to those of the vine. On 

 the other hand, it is well known that the grape vine will bear fruit 

 abundantly, year after year, when forced in pine stoves, with pine 

 apples, where, if a peach was introduced, it would scarcely survive 

 one season; at least it would not produce a single fruit worth eating 

 the second. 



Before entering on the general culture, I shall give a short descrip- 

 tion of the varieties of the grape hitherto cultivated in Europe, 

 either for making wine, or for the table; many of which are now 

 under trial at the Spring-Mill Vineyard, within fourteen miles of 

 Philadelphia, the property of a company incorporated by the legis- 

 lature, of Pennsylvania, "for the promotion of the culture of the 

 vine,'* and under the superintendence of Mr. Peter Legaux, an 

 experienced vine-dresser, and a gentleman of worth and science. 



These I shall divide into three classes, in the order of their 

 ripening. 1. Those which ripen earliest. 2. Those which succeed 



