320 [AsSfiJVIBLY 



to supply the great city of the west, which can be drawn thencf 

 by its railroads, from end to end, in four hours. 



Marcus L. Ward, one of the managers of the 24th annual fair 

 of the Institute, presented two bottles of Longworth's sparkling 

 Catawba wine of 1848. This wine is prepared by a Frenchman 

 by the name of Fourier. Would that all the Fourier prescrip- 

 tions were half as good as this. Seventeen members tasted it, and 

 their unanimous opinion was that it was superior to nine-tenths 

 of the wine sold as champagne. Now if our great country will 

 provide such a wine in the quantity of which it is capable, it can 

 feast the human race with potations unequalled except by the 

 lUtle patchy (as Webster would call it) champagny. The millions 

 of dollars lost by us in the vain effort to naturalize foreign grapes 

 here are not spent in vain, since it has taught our aspiring coun- 

 trymen to look for their wine from native sources. A new era 

 in the history of wine has now opened upon us ; we can grow 

 Catawba grapes on millions of square miles, but we cannot grow 

 a single European grape ! The frauds which make false cham- 

 pagne wine will be unnecessary ; our Catawbas will be so abun- 

 dant that honest men as well as rogues will have good wine. 



Prof. Mapes, who proposed the root crop for discussion, being 

 unavoidably absent on business of importance, the club continue 

 that subject to the next meeting. 



Root crops, their culture and uses. 



The club adjourned. 



H. MEIGS, Secretary. 



American Institute, ) 

 Farmers' Club, July 15, 1851. ^ 



Judge Van Wyck in the Chair, H. Meigs Secretary 



The Chairman said that, before entering on the regular subject 

 of the day, he wished to state a few facts as respects the kind of 

 farming which he witnessed lately, on a visit made to an old 

 neighbor and friend of his, in New Jersey. He is a real working 



