20 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



have sold a considerable quantity of grapes, 

 sent for to my premises; and entertained 

 hundreds of visiters, paying their entrance 

 fee into my vineyards to partake of grapes. 

 And to show the contrast of my American 

 system of wine culture, with that of the 

 European, in one particular, I state, while 

 those in my vineyard were furnished with 

 benches and other facilities, to reach the 

 fruit on the canopies above ; those gather- 

 ing grapes in Europe, where vines are' 

 kept humble, or a few feet only in height, 

 have to stoop downwards to gather. 



As an evidence of the great bearing 

 qualities of an American vineyard, ma- 

 naged the American fashion of letting 

 the vines eventually run unchecked over 

 scaffolding seven or eight feet high, and 

 nothing but posts and main stem of vines 

 seen beneath, I have to state that after a 

 hundred persons at a time, had partaken 

 abundantly, from about a quarter acre of 

 vines nearest my house, the grapes ab- 

 stracted could not apparently be missed; 

 but the same sheet of fruit, to appearance, 

 was visible above. The kinds that diver- 

 sified the said entertainment, were the 

 Scuppernong, the Norton's Virginia Seed- 

 ling — the Weller's Healepair, the Cun- 

 ningham and Fragrant. The last named 

 fruit together with the Scuppernong, (also 

 fragrant,) diffused a delightful perfume to 

 a considerable distance of the premises. 

 But I hasten to another subject, viz : 



2. As to the Jerusalem artichoke, I had 

 tried the common artichoke, indigenous 

 here — with some success — or had made 

 on ordinary soil at rates of three hundred 

 bushels per acre. But having opportu- 

 nity last fall a year, I purchased at. two 

 dollars per bushel, some of the Jerusalem. 

 The result of their culture has surpassed 

 my expectation. On different lots accord- 

 ing to careful calculation I have made, at 

 rates of eight, nine, ten, and even twelve 

 hundred bushels per acre. To test the 

 relative merits of the Jerusalem and com- 

 mon kind, I planted three rows on the 

 same ground, side by side, and they had 

 the same culture. The one Jerusalem — 

 and other two common kinds — the red 

 and white. I dug twenty feet of each 

 row and measured the product — as fol- 



lows: the Jerusalem one and a half bushels 

 and six quarts ; and common, each six 

 quarts. Or about nine times more of the 

 Jerusalem than the others. Or calculating 

 rows three feet apart, the three wide and 

 twenty long, sixty feet square measure. 

 Then for Jerusalem, stated as follows: 



feet. feet. quarts. bush. peck. qts. 



As 60: 210X210=44000 : 54: 1240: 1: 2 



As is 1240 divided by 9, equal to 137 

 bushels, and more. This disproportion is 

 greater, I suppose, through a dry spell in 

 critical time, for the common kind, which 

 caused the leaves to dry up, or jire, as we 

 say here of corn thus injured. Perhaps 

 more than half failure on this account ; 

 as more than double the yield of the com- 

 mon kind previously. But most of the 

 leaves kept green till frost. The stocks 

 of the latter grew generally twelve feet 

 high, and some fifteen ; common, several 

 feet lower. From the best light and ex- 

 perience, I consider about four feet drills, 

 and two feet in the drill best distance for 

 planting the Jerusalem on ordinary ground. 

 Of a lot planted thus I dug the distance 

 of ten feet one way and four the other — 

 and found three pecks — which I calcu- 

 | lated was a yield of 826 bushels and 3£ 

 j pecks per acre, — five stocks (twelve feet 

 ; high and very branching,) were on this 

 acre of forty feet. The ground was filled 

 in every direction more or less to the depth 

 of about one foot. In some instances, 

 however, I have found artichokes, of the 

 Jerusalem three and four feet from the 

 parent stock, and as large as those nearer. 

 The size of the Jerusalem tuber is not 

 large — even less than the common. Their 

 great yield is owing to the multitude of 

 them perforating the ground in every di- 

 rection. And their great profit of culture 

 is their abundant supply of food for swine ; 

 and that without gathering even. For 

 hogs turned in upon a lot of them, will 

 not only live and thrive, but fatten also 

 with about a fifth of the usual quantity 

 of corn for fattening. 



I find the best way of gathering, is to 

 plough the ground flush, and some chil- 

 dren, say, to follow the plough to pick 

 up. But after gathering in this way, 

 abundance is left for swine. When boiled 



