GRAPE. 



179 



that annually produced about three barrels of pure juice. In 

 those days, young men under thirty, and wonien, all their life- 

 time, were forbidden to drink wine. How would these regu- 

 lations suit the moderns ? Plato loved wine : he says, " No- 

 thing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted 

 by God to man/' Ignatius Marennius killed his wife with a 

 billet of wood, having caught her drinking wine. He was 

 tried, and was acquitted of murder : but history does not say 

 whether it was by his gold or a justification in the circum- 

 stances that he obtained his freedom. Cato records that the 

 custom of kinsfolk kissing women when they met, was to know 

 by their breath if they had been drinking wine ! There is no 

 fruit so wholesome — none so generally palatable — none that 

 can be so universally cultivated — and none so remunerating as 

 the Grape. Its rapidity of growth, productiveness, long life 

 and simplicity of culture, may enable every farmer, at least, to 

 live literally under his own vine. There is not a farmer or 

 planter from New York to New Orleans but may cultivate, 

 with a very small outlay, an abundance of this fruit. I never 

 see long, naked post-rail fences, but am reminded of the neg- 

 lect of this fruit : not that it does not deserve the very best 

 of ground, the most studied culture ; but here is a waste of 

 land and the very support that would produce thousands of tons 

 of this inestimable fruit, The extent of its culture in Ohio and 

 other States is rapidly increasing. N. Longworth, Esq., of 

 Cincinnati, a zealous horticulturist, has one hundred acres under 

 culture, which he rents out to Swiss and German vine-dressers, 

 who therefrom have an excellent living, and make him a boun- 

 tiful return. The fruit is manufactured into wine, and sold 

 at from 75 cents to 81.50 per gallon, and the produce of that 

 vicinity is about six hundred barrels. This is merely " a drop 

 in the bucket," compared with the immense import of the past 

 year.* For this purpose their standard Grape is the Catawba, 



* After deducting the export, there remains fcr home consumption 

 M05.166 gallons, at a cost of $1,131,038. 



