224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



l)ors — the result was, he always failed, they always succeeded. Many at 

 Cincinnati, I was told, are beginning to see that their German laborers and 

 directors know too little how grapes should be managed in this country. 

 And by the way, the j'ield of wine, per acre, even at Cincinnati, is from 50 

 to 100 gallons more per acre than it is in either Germany or France. Some 

 times in these countries there are almost total failures for three or four suc- 

 cessive years. It was only after repeated failures that the Romans, in the 

 second and third centuries, 'succeeded in establishing the vine on the banks 

 of the Rhine. Hence, I do not hesitate to say that the United States natu- 

 rally, and as a whole, ax-e more favorable for the grape than Europe. The 

 Ohio lake shore is fully equal to Italy, and California to Spain. To this 

 superiority, or, if one chooses, to this equality certainly must be added a 

 more intellectual and progressive people, who, in whatever business they 

 engage, thoroughly search for causes of failure, and ultimately, by scien- 

 tific and practical methods, attain all the success possible. 



Again we mounted our horses, when others joined us, and we go up and 

 over the hills. Few would value these steep rocky slopes, those bold airy 

 pinnacles, with deep gorges on either side, through which the Missouri is 

 seen at times, and yet in almost every field are grapes or men at work pre- 

 paring to plant them. When I inquired why such high rough ground was 

 considered best for grapes, I was told that the frost is less likely to kill 

 them, which is true, and that this fruit requires nothing so much as a free 

 circulation of air. Before I get through, I shall show that grapes will 

 grow excellently well on level ground. The soil on these hills is surpris- 

 ingly rich, corn looked well, even better than it usually looks in Illinois, 

 which is saying much, but they cultivate thoroughly, and plow a foot deep, 

 and barley fields were matted with green. This has become a most pi'ofi- 

 table crop, as it yields from 25 to 40 bushels an acre, andsells now atSl.50 

 a bushel. Wheat also does well. No where have I seen more thrifty or- 

 chards, the pear is a perfect success, and here alone, so far as my know- 

 ledge extends, the apricot bears year after year enormous crops of perfect 

 fruit. It sells from six to eight dollars a bushel. Afterward, at one place 

 they gave me some New York pippin apples so large that I could not get 

 them in my over-coat pockets. On the south side of the hills lime stone 

 crops out, where they like to plant the Herbemont; on the north side, sand 

 stone. We reached the top of the hill, where were some twenty acres of 

 level land. A few of the Hermann house tops and church spires were 

 visible. A vineyard and orchards were around us. At the house many 

 hands were at work building a wine'cellar. Again the Missouri is in sight, 

 and it stretches ten or fifteen miles to the northwest. It is also below us, 

 fully six hundred feet, or nearly an eighth of a mile. Two large vineyards 

 also lie below, and as if in a deep valley, but they are 250 feet above the 

 river. Hills are on every hand, and on their slopes and tops we see vine- 

 yards and grain fields and orchards and houses. At the river's edge the 

 hills terminate in rocky precipices. One hardly hears the railroad train as 

 it huQTS their base. 



