No. 150.] 329 



site in making cheese and butter. What more simple than the raak" 

 ing of butter, yet one tenant on a farm will make butter of a supe- 

 rior quality, whilst the butter made by another tenant on the same 

 farm, with equal facilities, is scarcely fit for use, and will not com- 

 mand half the price of his brother tenant. In Europe a landlord 

 often commences with selling his wine at $3 per dozen, and ends by 

 selling it at S12 or more, as his reputation becomes established. A 

 manufacturer who values the reputation of his vineyard, in unfavo- 

 rable seasons sells his wine in the cask, without attaching his name 

 to it at a low price. 



The cultivation of the grape for wine in our country was attempt- 

 ed about 50 years since, by a company at Spring Hill, near Phila- 

 delphia. They tried foreign wine grapes, and found them unsuited 

 to our climate. They found one grape only to stand the climate and 

 bear ^'^ll. 



The idea of manufacturing wine from a native -grape would in 

 that day have been hooted at, and the manager wisely, if not hon- 

 estly called it the Cape grape, though taken from the banks of the 

 Schuylkill; leaving it to be inferred that the vine was from the Cape 

 of Good Hope. The next attempt was by the Swiss emigrants, at 

 Vevay, Indiana. They found the grape of Switzerland unsuited to 

 our climate; and hearing of the Cape grape succeeding at Spring 

 Hill procured it, and for many years cultivated it, making a hard 

 rough, red wine, excellent for sangaree, but not relished as a table 

 wine. 



Their vineyards have gone down, and the Cape grape (Schuylkill 

 Muscadel) is now but little cultivated. It is one of our surest bear- 

 ers, and pressed as soon as gathered, and manufactured after the 

 manner of Madeira and Teneriffe wine, when at a proper age it 

 greatly resembles them. 



We are indebted to Major Adlam, of the District of Columbia, for 

 the introduction of the Catawba, our best wine grape. He erred in 

 making from it a sweet wine. The Major was compelled to culti- 

 vate it with a view to immediate profit, and injured the reputation 

 of his wine, in seasons when the Catawba did not produce a full 

 crop, by mixing with them the wild grapes of the woods in his vici- 

 nity. By tie introduction of that grape he was a great benefactor 

 to the nation, and the day is not distant when the banks of the Ohio 

 will rival the banks of the Rhine, in the quality ai^d quantity of 



