PREFACE, Vll 



claiming that character arc not susceptible of transportation by sea without 

 being adulterated. 



It will also be the purpose of the present work to show that the Vine culture 

 is in no wise difficult, that any failures which have taken place were far more 

 the result of erroneous management than of any incapacity of the soil, and 

 that the numerous difficulties which have been thrilled in our ears for the thou- 

 sandth time, exist only in the brains of those who have propagated them. In 

 fact, any person of the least information, after being taught the management of 

 a single vine, may without difficulty proceed in a similar course with a whole 

 vineyard. It is in fact a species of culture where one head will serve to direct 

 a great number, and in which after once instructed, no after difficulties need 

 arise, and this consideration is one of particular moment, when we take into 

 view its peculiar applicability to the situation of the labouring population in the 

 southern states. 



Another prominent advantage which this culture presents, is that it turns to 

 account soils and situations unsuitable for other objects, for Young relates in his 

 travels through France that he found every variety of soil, from a heavy clay to 

 a light blowing sand, and all exposures whatever, and every situation from a 

 perfect level to the steepest hills, to afford profitable crops of grapes ; for where 

 their quality is not suitable for the finer wines, they are made use of for distilla- 

 tion into brandies. Indeed, it is a fact so noted, that the very finest wines are 

 produced on the declivities and the poorest soils, that a ditty oft sung by con- 

 noisseurs contains the following stanza : " 



"Toujours le bon vin croit surlcs montagnes, 



Dans les rochers, et sur les coteaux ; 

 Celui qui croit dans les rases campagnes, 

 Ne vaut rien, & cause des eaux." 



In France alone the vine culture gives employment to two millions of labour- 

 ers, without enumerating many subordinate mechanical branches that are bene- 

 fitted by it; and it is attended with immense national advantages, which it forms 

 apart of the purpose of the present work to fully discuss and explain. 



Agriculture is the great basis and the source of national prosperity, as gene- 

 rally conceded. This fountain of our wealth is however sometimes oppressed 

 to such a degree as to make those engaged in it cry aloud for encouragement, 

 and assert that their claims are frequently neglected or inefficiently supported. 

 These circumstances appear plainly to present an appeal to our consideration, 

 and to call upon our national government to pursue the course long since adopted 

 by France ; that of favouring and encouraging the introduction and culture of 

 every foreign product which our climate is capable of maturing and perfect- 

 ing, and calculated to develope our internal riches, by bringing into useful action 

 those vast domestic resources which have too long lain dormant in the bosom 01 

 our soil ; a proper attention to which would place us in an attitude of independ- 

 ence of foreign supply. 



A great advantage resulting from such course is this ; that where a particular 

 branch of agriculture languishes or is depressed, by the produce becoming dimi- 

 nished in price from a superabundance of supply, a new channel for national 

 industry will not only afford profit to those actually engaged in it, but by with- 

 drawing a portion of the population from other objects of pursuit, tends to secure 



