No. 199.] 155 



in opinion that it was the best American wine they had met with, and 

 reported as follows : "The Sparkling Catawba, vintage of 1847, is 

 a sound good wine, and compares well with the Russian Eagle Cham- 

 pagne of France." It was tested by several gentlemen of repute, as 

 judges of wine, who pronounced it good, and were it to be had in 

 this market, would undoubtedly become a favorite. The peculiarly 

 rich aroma of the Catawba grape is very conspicuous in the wine. 



Among the great variety of native giapes with which our country 

 abounds, it is to be presumed there are some, if not many, which if 

 cultivated for that purpose, are capable of producing very good and 

 cheap wine, and probably some of very superior quality j and why 

 should it not be so, seeing that we cover all the latitudes and have 

 all the varieties of climate and soil which produce the wines of Eu- 

 rope "? 



The following quotation is from •' James' Expedition to the Rocky 

 Mountains," wherein the author asserts that the Vitis vinifera is 

 found in America in its wild state. "The small elms along this 

 valley we^e bending undel" the weight of innumerable grape vines, 

 now loaded with ripe fruit, the purple clusters crowded in s«ch pro- 

 fusion as almost to give a coloring to the landscape. On the oppo- 

 site side of the river was a range of low sand hills, fringed with vines, 

 rising not more than a foot or eighteen inches from the surface. On 

 examination, we found these hillocks had been produced exclusively 

 by the agency of the grape vines, arresting the sand as it was borne 

 along by the wind, until such quantities had been accumulated as to 

 bury every part of the plant except the branches. Many of these 

 were so loaded with fruit as to present nothmg to the eye but a series 

 of clusters, so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. 

 The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other 

 native or exotic which we have met with in the United States. The 

 burying of the greater part of the trunk with its larger branches pro- 

 duces the effect of pruning, inasmuch as it prevents the unfolding of 

 leaves and flowers on the parts below the surface, while the protruded 

 ends of the branches enjoy an increased degree of light and heat from 

 the reflection of the sand. It is owing, undoubtedly, to these causes 

 that the grapes in question are far superior to the fruit of the same 



