2-JO 



NEW-YORK FARMER A.VD 



[We an; much pleased in being enabled to lay be- 

 fore our readers the following letter, not doubting that 

 it will be read with all the interest that was given to 

 the former one, from the same source. AVe certain- 

 ly agree with the writer, that tho choice of species in 

 the vine, like that of the best breeds and crossings 

 in the animal tribe, is of primary importance. The 

 deductions with respect to the sorts of vines which he 

 ecommends, seem to us so clear, that we hope the 

 public will coincide with us in t ic value of the infor- 

 mation, which appeals to be the result of personal ob- 

 servation, corroborated by practical results.] 

 A RT. 167. — Copy of a letter from W. Eldeuton 

 Allen, Esq. to Dr Samuel L. MitchUl, on the 

 cultivation oj the Vine, dated JV*. York, 'Vor. 1828. 

 (Communicated for the N. Y. Farmer & Hor. Re- 

 pository.] 



Sir — Since you honored me by causing- my letter 

 to you of the 2d of April last, on tho subject of the 

 Grape Vine, to be published in the New-York Hor- 

 ticultural Repository, I have taken a cursory view of 

 the state of the vine, wherever it happened to fall in 

 my way in or about the environs of this city, inclu- 

 ding part of Long [stand, the Jerseys, &c. &c. and 

 I must confess to you it struck me, though perhaps 

 erroneously, that there was at present neither suffi- 

 cient'progress made in the planting, nor such an ap- 

 pearance of de?ire to attain perfection either in the 

 partial or general cultivation and nruningofthe few 

 which exist, to render it worth my trespassing on you 

 or the public, for the present, with any detailed plans 

 on the subject, as I had at first proposed. 



It is my intention now merely to submit to you two 

 observations relating to the object in question — the 

 one in confirmation, in part, of what I have in my last 

 referred to with respect to the impossibility of deter- 

 mining, other than by experience and time, whet sort 

 of wine " may be expected to be produced in this or 

 any other of the United States, from any particular 

 selected grape," which however I shall now venture 

 to follow up by a recommendation (founded on the 

 '•xperience of this as well as other climates,) of the 

 Burgundy Grope, as that which is most likely to turn 

 out the best for a wine crop. 



The other observation will be, on the preference 

 to be given to autumnal and winter, instead of spring 

 pruning. With regard to the former, namely, the 

 probable " production in wine either as to quantity or 

 quality, or the sett of grape most likely to produce 

 the best wine," referred to in my former letter ; on 

 casting my eye the other day over Sterne's Sentimen- 

 tal Journey, a book which I had not looked at for the 

 last 20 years at least, I accidentally observed him al- 

 so to have laid a foundation fortius theory of uncer- 

 tainty in production, which I in some measure, exhi- 

 bited in myformerfletter, but which Mr. Sterna's doc- 



trine, accompanied with some few facts which I in- 

 tend to state, seem to me so perfectly to confirm in 

 favour of the Burgundy Grape, that I cannot avoid 

 so far digressing from the subject, as to give you his 

 observations, which 1 shall do as briefly as is neces- 

 sary to explain the introduction by him into his book, 

 of matter so apparentlyunconnected with the memoirs 

 of a Sentimental Traveller, as is the planting of the 

 vine, especially in a country many thousand miles 

 distant from the land ofhis travels. 



Mr. Sterne, by way of sarcasm on the general dis- 

 content of man and tho motives which induce all clas- 

 ses to leave their homes in search of novelty, appears 

 to have been desirous of establishing as a great lead- 

 ing principle, that all were reduced to one general 

 level of absolute uncertainty in the result oftheii 

 most flattering expectations ; and with this view, he 

 proceeds to say, that, " The man who first transplan- 

 ted the grape of Burgundy to the Cape of Good Hope 

 (observe he was a Dutchman) never dreamt of drink- 

 ing the same wine at the Cape, that the .same grape 

 produced upon the French mountains — he was too 

 phlematic for that — but undoubtedly he expected to 

 drink some sort of vinous liquor : but whether good, 

 bad, or indifferent — he knew enough of this world to 

 know, that it did not depend upon his choice, but that 

 what is generally called chance was to decide his 

 success : however, he hoped for the best ; and in 

 these hopes, by an intemperate confidence in the for- 

 titude of his head, and the depth of his discretion, 

 Mynheer might possibly overset both in his new vine- 

 yard ; and by discovering his nakedness, become a 

 laughing-stock to his people." 



Mr. Sterne's journey on the continent of Europe, 

 took place about the year 1760, and the first edition 

 of his book appeared some where about 1707, and 

 it is a curious fact that the Burgundy Grape men- 

 tioned by him as planted at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 has never produced Burgundy (meaning the wine so 

 called) at the Cape, but its product was a light kind of 

 Madeira, in great quantities, of a bright straw or pale 

 sherry colour, of excellent flavour and much esteem- 

 ed and used In London by economical persons, as a 

 common dinner vine, from its great cheapness, be- 

 ing sold retail at about 18s. sterling (or S 1) the doz- 

 en, owing to its being subject to a very low duty, as 

 coming from a British colony. 



This circumstance, added to those mentioned in 

 my former letter, will, I think, induce you to agree 

 with me, that the success which the Biii'«ii»(!j Giaj r 

 has met, in uniformly producing a good nine, und< r 

 the several changes of climate in which it has been 

 tried during the last half century and upwards, (al- 

 though not a precise Burgundy wine,) affords at least 

 a fair inference thai it would be the best grape to 

 plant, on a large scale, for ivine, in this country, es- 



