OF THE VINE. 73 



difficult to determine. Now if at six years of age, 

 an Isabella vine will net the owner thirty or forty 

 dollars yearly, the investment pays a very liberal 

 rate of interest, and may yet claim the profound 

 attention of those who have the peculiar sagacity 

 to perpetuate our statute laws on the subject of 

 usury. 



A writer observes, that single vines of the Scup- 

 pernong of Carolina, have been known to yield 

 grapes enough to make several barrels of wine, and 

 to cover two and a half acres of ground. The mode 

 of cultivating the Scuppernong is peculiar. The 

 vines (layers, not cuttings) are planted in the vine- 

 yard one hundred feet apart, the main branches 

 having space to run fifty feet each way, at right 

 angles from the center, the laterals intersecting 

 overhead, and forming a canopy. The branches 

 are seldom pruned, as it is said the vine would bleed 

 to death if pruned like other kinds. Like the vines 

 in Lombardy, these are high trained, the lowest 

 branches being eight feet above, and parallel with the 

 ground. They can be made to cover an endless 

 extent, for like the banian tree, its pendant limbs 

 approach the ground, and naturally strike root of 

 themselves. At the vineyard of Mr. Weller, about 

 eighteen miles from Wilmington, N. C, a square 

 was laid out and measured, and from the quantity 

 gathered in the square from two vines, it was esti- 

 mated that the two would yield one hundred and 

 fifty barrels of grapes. Taking the weight of a 

 barrel at two hundred pounds, this would amount 

 to fifteen thousand pounds for each vine, or seven 



