March.] THE VINEYARD. 935 
they can discover those best adapted to their respective soils and 
climates. 
There is not the least doubt but the vines of any temperate cli- 
mate can be naturalized in any state in the Union in a very short 
time: for there is an astonishing facility in plants to accommodate 
themselves to soil and climate, and in very few more than in the 
vine. The helianthus annuus, or common annual sunflower, is a 
native of Mexico and Peru; and yet we all know that it now grows 
in every part of the Union where introduced, as well as if it were 
indigenous. The helianthus tuberosus, or what is commonly called 
the Jerusalem artichoke, is a tropical plant, being a native of Brazil, 
and is become naturalized to our climates, as well as to those of 
Europe, as far north as St. Petersburg, and perhaps farther. The 
cherry tree, when first introduced into Italy hj Lucullus, a Roman 
general, from the city of Cerasus, in Pontus, whence its name 
Prunus Cerasus, was there treated as a tender exotic; by degrees 
it had crept into Britain, where it was treated for some time in like 
manner; and experience now proves that it thrives in America as 
well as in Italy, Britain, or Pontus itself. Thousands of other 
instances could be adduced of the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator in furnishing plants with those accommodating powers; but 
the vine has manifested itself in so many, and so universally, that 
it is unnecessary to recapitulate them; yet we frequently meet with 
people who say "it will never succeed here 11" 
It may, however, be proper to remark, that where the peach 
tree perfects its fruit in open field culture, so will the vine; the 
latter is even capable of bearing greater degrees of heat, and of 
producing fruit in perfection in higher latitudes than the former, 
manifested by the quantity of wine made in many places in the 
south of England, from its productions in open vineyard culture; 
whilst there they could not have a single peach from a thousand 
trees cultivated in the same way, principally owing to the want of 
a sufficiency of summer heat to ripen the young wood; and mild as 
their winters are, in comparison to ours, they, under such circum- 
stances, generally destroy the pithy and unripened shoots of the 
peach, without doing near so much injury to those of the vine. On 
the other hand, it is well known that the grape vine will bear fruit 
abundantly, year after year, when forced in pine stoves, with pine 
apples, where, if a peach was introduced, it would scarcely survive 
one season; at least it would not produce a single'fruit worth eating 
the second. 
Before entering on the general culture, I shall give a short descrip- 
tion of tiie varieties of the grape hitherto cultivated in Europe, 
either for making wine, or for the table; many of which are now 
under trial at the Spring-Mill Vineyard, within fourteen miles of 
Philadelphia, the property of a company incorporated by the legis- 
lature of Pennsylvania, "for the promotion of the culture of the 
mne," and under the superintendence of Mr. Peter Legaux, an 
experienced vine-dresser, and a gentleman of worth and science. 
These I shall divide into three classes, in the order of their 
ripening. 1. Those which ripen earliest. 2. Those which succeed 
