438 FRUIT. 



ordinary fruit, are opening the eyes of market growers to the pecu- 

 niary advantages of high cultivation. 



Perhaps the greatest advance in fruit-growing of the last half- 

 dozen years, is in the culture of foreign grapes. So long as it was 

 believed that our climate, which is warm enough to give us the 

 finest melons in abundance, is also sufficient to produce the foreign 

 grape in perfection, endless experiments were tried in the open gar- 

 den. But as all these experiments were unsatisfactory or fruitless, 

 not only at the North but at the South it has finally come to be 

 admitted that the difficulty lies in the variableness, rather than the 

 want of heat, in the United States. This once conceded, our horti- 

 culturists have turned their attention to vineries for raising this de- 

 licious fruit under glass and at the present time, so much have 

 both private and market vineries increased, the finest Hamburgh, 

 Chasselas, and Muscat grapes, may be had in abundance at mode- 

 rate prices, in the markets of Boston, New-York, and Philadelphia. 

 For a September crop of the finest foreign grapes, the heat of the 

 sun accumulated in one of the so-called cold vineries (i. e. a vinery 

 without artificial heat, and the regular temperature insured by the 

 vinery itself) is amply sufficient. A cold vinery is constructed at 

 so moderate a cost, that it is now fast becoming the appendage of 

 every good garden, and some of our wealthiest amateurs, taking ad- 

 vantage of our bright and sunny climate, have grapes on their tables 

 from April to Christmas the earlier crops forced the late ones 

 slightly retarded in cold vineries. From all that we saw of the best 

 private gardens in England, last summer, we are confident that we 

 raise foreign grapes under glass in the United States, of higher flavor, 

 and at far less trouble, than they are usually produced in England. 

 Indeed, we have seen excellent Black Hamburghs grown in a large 

 pit made by covering the vines trained on a high board fence, with 

 the common sash of a large hot-bed. 



On the Ohio, the native grapes especially the Catawba have 

 risen to a kind of national importance. The numerous vineries 

 which border that river, particularly about Cincinnati, have begun 

 to yield abundant vintages of pure light wine, which takes rank with 

 foreign wine of established reputation, and commands a high price 

 in the market. Now *.hat the Ohio is certain to give us Hock and 



