108 APPENDIX. 



he must die. " What I care?" said the old man, "I take 

 none. What I want to live for ? My grapes all rotten." A 

 few hours, and he was no more. Peace to his ashes. 



N. LONGWORTH. 



Cincinnati, July 16, 1849. 



MANUFACTURE OF NATIVE WINE. 



Gentlemen of the Cincinnati Horticultural Society : 



The season for our vintage is approaching, and the quality 

 of the wine depends mainly on the period of gathering the 

 grapes, and the care and neatness exercised in the manufac- 

 ture, and the selection of the casks : skill has little to do with 

 it. To make good butter, is apparently one of the most sim- 

 ple employments ; yet not one dairy-woman in ten makes but- 

 ter of the first quality ; while the best commands twenty-five 

 cents per pound, the poorest has a dull sale at half price. 



The first error is gathering the grapes too soon. This sea- 

 son has been a severe one on our grape crop, yet from the in- 

 creased number of vineyards now in bearing, I believe the 

 vintage will be greater this season than last. A late frost was 

 very destructive in our vineyards, and the summer rot more 

 so. From the first, vines often recover. One person informed 

 me the frost killed all the young shoots, and his vine-dresser 

 cleared out in despair, but that the dormant shoots put out 

 With great vigor, and from one acre and one-third he expected 

 to make 1,600 gallons of wine. If this prove true, the frost 

 has to him been a blessing ; for I have never yet known 1,000 

 gallons to be made from an acre. 



If we want large crops, we must go to the fertile lands of 

 North Carolina, where, from their famous Scuppernong, they 

 make from 2,000 to 3,000 gallons per acre. This is truly mi- 

 raculous. I have known a bunch of our Catawba grape, to 

 have 150 berries, and weigh twenty-four ounces. On the 

 Scuppernong, the yield is from two to eight berries. The 

 price is in proportion. We add no sugar, and sell our wine 



