VI PREFACE. 



species, we enjoy, by parity of reasoning, advantages tenfold those which were 

 originally possessed by them, as they commenced the vine culture with a single 

 species alone. 



In Europe the culture of the vine has been profitably extended to the 51 of 

 N. lat. and in some cases to the 52. Allowing the present difference in climate 

 or temperature to be 10 between similar latitudes of that continent and our 

 own, it thence follows that vines of the foreign varieties may be advantageously 

 cultivated to the 42 in our own country, and perhaps the intensity of our sum- 

 mer heat may extend the limit somewhat further to the north. But taking this 

 as the extreme limit where profitable crops can be obtained for the purpose 

 of making wine, still their culture can be extended much farther for the purpose 

 of table fruit, and as an article of luxury. But an obvious course immediately 

 presents itself for extending vineyards profitably as far north as they are in 

 Europe. This is the use of our native varieties of the hardier description, some 

 of which being found growing, naturally as far north as Lower Canada, do not 

 fail to succeed even in that country. Thus it appears that although there exists 

 a present difference of about 10 between the temperature of our country and 

 that of Europe, the hand of nature has implanted our soil with vegetable pro- 

 ductions of a hardier character, capable of supporting the severities of climate 

 in a degree fully proportionate to the variation referred to. And I may also 

 here mention the peculiar property most of our native vines, and particularly 

 the northern species, possess, of flowering at a much earlier period than foreign 

 vines, which is of itself equivalent to an increase in the length of the season. 



But even the difference of climates referred to, together with our occasional 

 late spring frosts and variableness of the atmosphere, will, it is anticipated, be 

 greatly diminished, and gradually subside as a more general culture of the soil 

 takes place ; when the forests are removed so as to lay bare the earth to the 

 regular influence of solar heat, and the collections of stagnant water become 

 dried up, an advance towards which point has been already realized in some of 

 the best cultivated parts of our country. 



The ancient descriptions of the German territory, and of France to the north 

 of the Cevennes, confirm our belief that the climates of those countries were 

 formerly of a character similar to our own, and that they have varied from the cir- 

 cumstances attendant on general cultivation. Diodorus Siculus tells us that 

 the large rivers of the Roman provinces, the Rhine and the Danube, were fre- 

 quently frozen for their whole depth, and thereby rendered capable of support- 

 ing enormous burthens, in so much that the Barbarian hordes preferred that 

 season for their invasions. 



By the preceding remarks it will be perceived, that the culture of the vine 

 may be made profitable even to the remotest northern and eastern sections of 

 the union, and my own opinion is, that by the course recommended, it can be 

 extended farther to the north than it has been in Europe. 



The pursuit itself is one both ennobling and inspiring, and is calculated to 

 elicit the best propensities of the human heart, and as will be shown, it is one 

 which kings and potentates have not failed to honour with their personal atten- 

 tion. On the other hand, it is indispensably necessary for us to adopt it, if we 

 expect ever to taste wines equal to the more luscious ones of France, as those 



