266 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



JYovember 12, 1860. 

 Present, 40 members. Mr. R. G. Pardee in the chair. 

 The Secretary, Judge Meigs, opened proceedings with the fol- 

 lowing statement : 



WINE AND GRAPES. 



Some years ago I met with a very extraordinary article on 

 this subject. Records of the quality of them, with little inter- 

 ruption for ahotit six hundred years, showing how very dependent 

 this vintage always has been on weather, so that good ones are 

 scarce, being at intervals of three to four years. We are familiar 

 with the idea that the climates of the world change greatly. 

 This error wants correction. Strabo visited England 1850 years 

 ago, and states, in his account of it, the prevalence of fog and 

 rain, and the rare bright sunshine. His remarks on the climate 

 of the Crimea, Black Sea, &c., precisely accord with the facts of 

 our day. The fertility of soil under rational treatment always 

 remains, but the limits of vegetables are marked on the globe by 

 boundaries unsurpassable. The noble ejBForts of England and 

 France to acclimate plants and animals, and cotton especially, 

 fail to a great extent, and both of them must have cotton from 

 the United States or go without. Great efforts have been made 

 to substitute flax 1 Expensive chemical experiments have all 

 failed to make flax or any other fibrous plant a substitute for 

 cotton. The crop of flax is very small — the manipulation costly. 

 While our cotton yields vastly more per acre with far less trouble, 

 and at last is what we want, cotton ! As there is no substitute 

 for flax or wool, so none for cotton, which we see lately has 

 ceased to be vulgar, and is called King ! 



AGRICULTURE, &C., OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



We have the November number of The JYorth Carolina Planter. 

 We are fond of everything clever from this State. Our recollec- 

 .tions are all favorable to it as a stable, sensible, safe, republican 

 people. This " Old North State " has had fewer whims in its 

 head than any other State. I know not why, but fifty years of 

 acquaintance have taught me so much. For thirty years one of 

 her citizens represented her in Congress. That man was never 

 excelled for wisdom and goodness by any man that ever lived — 

 Nathaniel Macon — who abstained from the grievous " slang- 

 whang " (as Washington Irving called it), but his judgment and 

 decisions were admired. The Old North State has been slow, 



