PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS* CLUB. 219 



ever read on the subject, I hope they will be preserved in the proceed- 

 ings of the Club. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — I fully agree with Mr. Bergen, and hope the Seo 

 retary will attach them to the report of this meeting. 



MR. N. c. Meeker's letters. 



I have undertaken to furnish three letters on raising grapes and making 

 wine. That this might be done with advantage, I have visited vineyards 

 around Cleveland and Cincinnati, and in Illinois and Missouri. What I 

 shall have to say will apply to that part of our country west of Pennsyl- 

 vania and New York, though much will be common to all sections. The 

 facts I have gathered will be useful to beginners; skillful growers will find 

 some of them new — they will decide whether they are true. 



Some time ago I thought of writing against making wine of grapes — 

 now, after reflecting and careful examination, I write in favor of the 

 object. Some of the reasons are : many men seek stimulating drink with 

 the rage that a tiger seeks blood. Drink they will. The children of such 

 inherit this taste. It is better for them to have the gout than the delirium 

 tremens. Young persons are led astray — they drink and fall to rise no 

 more. It is fashionable, it has been thought not hurtful, to drink wine. 

 The wine of the saloons, the grog-shops, and the hotel tables, is worse 

 than the whisky of which it is the basis. There is no doubt that in drink- 

 ing it millions have been ruined. So long ago as in 1780, Marmontelle, in 

 his memoirs, relates that an Archbishop whom he names, when getting a 

 supply of wine, went himself to the press and selected the grapes ; he saw 

 them mashed and pressed, he furnished casks into which the wine was put, 

 then he had them put into wagons which he could lock up, and he kept 

 watch of them by day and night till they were placed in his own cellar. 

 If this was necessary then, in order to get pure wine, what is required 

 now ? Simply that farmers should plant grapes, and that wine be plenti- 

 ful. I candidly believe it can become as common as cider. It is vastly 

 easier to make a temperance man of a wine-drinker than of a whisky- 

 drinker, because there is a basis to work on. Reforms come by degrees- 

 First, one step, then another step ; never many steps at once. The tem- 

 perance movement has resulted in making beer-drinkers. Next let there 

 be wine-drinkers. When this habit shall be removed, it will be last in the 

 series of temperance reform. Perhaps, if not quite successful in this, no 

 harm will be done. 



We must take the mass of mankind as they are, not as we wish them to 

 be, or as a few of us ma^ be. I do not believe that if we have a plenty of 

 pure native wine we will be inclined to abandon it for whisky, any more than I 

 believe wo will abandon good for poor food. Wine drinking, as I propose it, 

 is wholly unknown in this country. I have no confidence that a glass of pure 

 wine can be obtained simply by askiug for it, either in New York or London. 

 In Cincinnati it is notoriously drugged. I think I can show how almost 

 every farmer may have barrels of pure wine in his cellar, and at a little 

 expense. Let us remember that we have free schools, that the sciences 

 are enlarging, and that the human brain itself is expanding. A vast, rich 

 and wonderful country is ours. The Arabian Nights does not speak of 



