256 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
ish throughout the south, and by holding annual exhibi- 
tions, as well as getting their reports published in the 
different agricultural journals, which ought to betaken by 
every planter, we could, in a few years, surpass the north 
in her Pomology and in Agriculture. 
J. W. F. 
Bayou Sara., West Feliciana, Parish^ La,. 
ORIGIN OF THE CATAWBA GRAPE. 
On the authority of Mr. Mosher, President of the Ame- 
srican Wine-Growers’ Association of Cincinnati, who ap- 
pears to have investigated the subject very thoroughly, 
the origin of the Catawba grape is nov/ referred to Bun- 
combe county, North Carolina. They were first found 
at Murraysville, near Flat Rock, (at present the residence 
of Mr. Blake, of New York, but at that time owned by 
Mr. Murray, the father of Wm. Murray, very well known 
to all who ever visited the Limestone Springs in Spartan- 
burg District, and at present living near Catoosa Springs, 
Ga.) In 1802, Mr. Murray says, the grapes were grow- 
ing in great abundance at his father's farm. For the 
later history and propagation of this grape, we quote from 
the communication of Mr. Mosher to the Western Horti- 
cuttural Revieio : “In 1807, Gen. Davy, a Senator in 
Congress, then living at Rocky Mount, on the Catawba 
river, South Carolina, in the bounds of the Catawba na- 
iion of Indians, transplanted some of these grapes to his 
residence ; and sometime between the years 1807 and 
1816, he took some of them with him to Washington, gave 
them the name of the Catawba Grape, and disseminated 
them among his friends in Maryland. From this source 
it is probable they fell into the possession of Mrs. Schell, 
from whom Major Adlurn obtained them, and made wine 
of them in 182‘2. In 1822, he sent the vines, with some 
of the wine, to Mr. Longworth, of Cincinnati.” — Western 
Agriculturist. 
VINE GROWING IN FRANCE-NO. 3. 
Borde.4UX, France, April 29th, 1856. 
I believe I closed my last by saying I was about to de- 
liver my letters of introduction to M. Guektier, pair rk 
France, Propvietaire in the Medoc, and the largest nego- 
cian, of wines in Bordeaux, if not in the world. J did so, 
and no sooner had M. Guertier read the letter and found 
out my object than he at once placed his chateau ofBey- 
cheville in the Medoc, his servants, carriage, horses, 
kitchen and all at my disposal and gave me a letter to his 
“homme d'affaires.” 1 accepted this kindness with the 
same freedom with wiiich it was offered, and the, next 
morning at 6 o’clock I took the steamer down the Gironde 
for the chateau of Reycheville, and the land of Medoc, 
■palria insigna Brircho. The Gironde, formed by the 
confluence of the Giionde and the I ordogne, about ten 
miles below Bordeaux is a large river, or, rather, arm of 
the sea— as the water is salt. There is no current, and 
the tides rise 6 to 8 feet high. It is about 2 miles wide 
at the point where the two rivers unite to form it, and 
gradually widens as it approaches the sea, which is SO 
miles distant. In color it resembles the salt water rivers I 
have seen on the coast of Georgia. The right-hand bank, 
as you descend, is lined with bluffs, rising about 200 feet 
from the water and composed of limestone rock, whence 
the building materials of Bordeaux and the surrounding 
country are drawn. 
This rock contains more sand than that whicli forms 
the Paris basin, and, consequently, is not so durable. It 
is soft when first dug up, but hardens on exposure. On 
the left-hand — the great wine district of Medoc — tlie banks 
are low^ and marshy, the marshes sometimes running 
more than a mile in land and producing abundance of i.e- 
termittent fever in autumn, as I was informed by Labahtke 
of Ludon. At 10$ A. M. I reached Reycheville. After 9 
months passed on steamboats, railroads and in smoky 
cities, I found myself once more surrounded by broad 
fields in the midst of sunshine, flowers and green trees. I 
felt my heart swell and my breast dilate with that indis- 
cribable sense of pleasure and gratitude with which a na- 
tive of the country welcomes again the presence of nature. 
When my step echoed as I crossed the paved vestibule 
and I entered the grand salon, and looked up to the great 
beams of the ceiling, twdsted with age, the immense oM. 
fire-place, with its high, quaintly carved, old mantle-piere, 
the silence, the solitude, the prestige of age and nobility, 
gave back to me in an instant all my individuality, so 
long mixed with the thoughts, feelings and actions of other 
men. I felt at home. What can I say more 1 
It will be long before I forget Beychevile and the kind ot- 
tentions of M. Marlin, the “homme d’affaires” of M. 
Guertier, an old veteran who served in the peninsular 
campaign under the first Emperor and an excellent vigm- 
rol ; and the worthy casteret, an old soldier and prefeet- 
uer des vignes by inheritance, who twice a day (at meal 
time) did proper homage to the keen appetite which the 
unusual exercise and country air gave me, as he annoujo- 
ced, with a military salute, “Monsieur est servi and. 
how, in the morning, I jumped out of bed and ran u|>ob ^ 
the large stone terrance, to breathe the fresh breeze of 
spring and greet the rising sun which glistened and 
sparkled among the dewy flowers of the rich green prairie 
that sloped away towards the Gironde, which shone ia , 
distance like a great silver mirror; and how, at night, the 
perfume of the lilacs and roses, with v/hich the chateau iu 
surrounded, stole into my chamber to mingle in my 
dreams, with the notes of the nightingale, which had just 
made her appearance from the south, and whose song I 
heard for the first time. But, delicious as these sensatiofts 
were, it was far other and more important purposes that I 
found myself at Beycheville. to wit : as you already know, 
to study the cultivation of the vine. This I did with all 
diligence, and succeeded in gathering many particulars | 
which I hope may be of interest and importance to you, I 
and of which I shall endeavor to communicate to you as , 
many as possible in the space afforded by a letter. 
First of the climate. The Medoc is cut in half by the 
45th° of latitude. I extract from the Carte Agricok and 
Cliviatique de la Fro.nce, of M. LaGenorf. Declay, the 
following observations made at Bordeaux : 
1st. The predominant wind is north-west. 
2nd. Days ofrain yearly 74. 
3rd. Extreme cold 1 7. 8® below zero (Farh.) 
4 th. Average, of the thermometer from April to October, 
inclusive, 64.3®. 
For April the average is 55. 2^^; for October, 57.5® ; 
July is tlie hotte.st month and the average is 71.8"^. Dr. 
Labartue told me that the extreme heat in summer was 
about 91®. My thermometer stood, in the grand salon at 
Beycheville, April 25th, 7 a. m., 54.5“: 1 p. m., (>4.4®; 5 p. | 
M., 62.G®, and the sun was so hot in the middle of the day, 
that I was forced to exchange my beaver for a straw' hat. 
Fur-ther, the lilacs were commencing to shed their floweis, 
and the pea vines were of full size and full of blossoms, 
as were also the strawberries. In comparing this climate 
with ours, we must not forget the long spell of cloudy 
weather, and fogs which prevail here at all seasons, and 
the hails of summer. These are points of great impor- 
tance, but 1 can obtain no figures in reference to them, ex- 
cept. only the fact that everywhere there are insurance 
oflices to insure the vines from the eftects of the hails. 
Next comes the great question of soils, in regard to 
which it is difficult to give satisfactory information. Tl.a 
general ajapearance of the country is this ; After leaving 
