98 
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
by threefold in value. I omitted saying that a hill side 
should be selected if you have it, and a friable calcareous 
soil, if mixed with gravel the better. 
For those who cannot trench, a large'plow, followed by 
a subsoil plow, well used, is the next best. It may do, 
but not so certainly, and the vineyard will not be so good, 
unless in very favorable soils. It fails to throw the rich 
surface soil to the bottom, a very important part, as it is 
not favorable for the roots to run near the surfoce. They 
should be tempted down. 
Where time and opportunity fails to allow the use of 
the subsoil plow, it may still be worth while to begin with 
the use of the common plow alone, run as deep as pos- 
sible. It is not a very hopeful plan, but by subsequent 
trenches between the rows, it may do partially, and in 
favorable localities, yield a remunerating crop. For those 
anxious to begin, it is better than nothing, and may afford 
a start to be improved upon afterwards. 
During the winter the slips or one year old roots may 
be obtained, and they should be set out not more than 6 
feet by 4 apart, leaving the top eye just level with the sur- 
face of the ground, and slightly covered with light earth 
to prevent being killed by the sun. Two slips should be 
set in each hole to allow for one failing. If both grow, 
one may be removed next springs for replanting missing 
spots. It roots are used the top should be trimmed away 
to one or two good eyes. The proper time for planting is 
after the spring has fairly opened, say from the middle of 
April to tbe middle of May.* The first years’s cultivation 
is only to keep them free of weeds. No trimming, training 
or staking will be needed, it will be hard if the beginner 
does not learn in the next twelve months how to pro- 
ceed. 
The preparation of the ground let me repeat, is of the 
highest importance. You cannot have a vineyard with- 
out it, any more than ♦you can have a house without a 
foundation. If you wish to throw away your vines, and 
what little trouble you do take, let your ground alone un- 
til spring — snatch a little time from your farm or garden — 
dig a hole in the hard ground where you want your vine 
to be, just big enough to get it in, and “let it rip.” After 
a few years, folks will hear you talking that vines do no 
good in this country. 
After all, the.best and most compendious piece of advice 
to a beginner, is to lay out a dollar or less in the purchase 
of Mr. R. Buchanan’s Treatise on the Vine Culture. It is 
an eminently practical book, by a practical man, adapted 
precisely to the wants of those who wish minute and de- 
tailed instructions. 
To those who would like to enquire further concerning 
this subject, the writer cheerfully proffers, if addressed, 
to give them the benefit of all he knows. Satisfied of the 
importance of this branch of industry, in every sense, he 
is not likely to be averse to a little trouble now and then, 
in its service. — Tennessee Farmer tf* Mechanic. 
VINEYARDS AND ORCHARDS IN SOUTH 
Carolina. 
Dr. Randall Croft writes the editor of the Greenville 
Patriot and Mountaineer, as follows; 
Mr Editor: — We have just returned from paying a 
Christmas visit to my bi'oiher, who resides on Shaw’s 
Creek, four miles from Aiken, where we spent three 
weeks delightfully; and with the best of friends, tne 
choicest fare, and plenty of good cheer, the time passed 
so quickly away, that we regretted when our own busi- 
ness required our presence at home again. While there, 
we frequently saw our Iriend and townsman, Mr. Pinck- 
*From four to eight weeks than this in the more 
Southern States. — Eds. So. Cult. 
ney McBee, who is spending the winter at Aiken for the 
benefit of his health. We were much pleased to see the 
imorovement in his appearance and spirits, which a few' 
weeks sojourn there had effected. I also met another of 
our Greenville friends, Maj. Easley, who is there for the 
same purpose. He is looking better, and I hope will soon 
be restored to health. How fortunate are we to have in 
our own State a town like Aiken, where the sick and af- 
flicted can resort with confidence in the winter, and with 
impunity in summer. It is a delightful place, and w'e 
were gratified to see how much it had increased in size. 
It has been much frequented by consumptives, and those 
suffering from pulmonary diseases, from the Northern 
States, during the winter, and those flying from the dis- 
eases of the city and the fevers of the lower country dur- 
ing the summer months. 
There are two fevers raging to a very considerable ex- 
tent in that section — the grape and the peach fever. And 
you can form no idea of the wine excitment existing there 
at this time ; neither are we able to describe it. We are 
not certain that we have not caught the infection. Every 
one is either planting or preparing to plant him a vine- 
yard. The vine has been cultivated very successfully for 
several years by A. de Caradeuc and Dr. McDonald. I 
spent a very delightful day with Mr. de Caradeuc, from 
whom I received much information and instruction on the 
growing of the vine — the proper location of the vineyard, 
and the different varieties of grapes which are best suited 
to our climate. 
For the first time in my life, I saw a regular wine press. 
You are aware that wine is only the juice of the grape ex- 
pressed, and allowed to ferment, when it is drawn oflf and 
put into casks for a year or so, and then bottled. It should 
receive no alcohol. I tasted, at Mr. de Caradeuc's and Dr, 
McDonald’s, a delightful Claret, an excellent, still Cham- 
paigne, and a delicious Madeira wine; also a very fine 
brandy. These gentlemen may be said to be the pioneers 
of vineyards in South Carolina, and are rendering much 
essential service to the State. They make some seven or 
eight hundred dollars to the acre; and they are doing thb 
on lands which twenty years ago no one would pay taxes 
on. 
Our rice planters do not clear one hundred dollars to the 
acre on lands that are w'orth from one hundred to two 
hundred dollars per acre, while they are realizing six or 
seven hundred dollars. Their places are perfectly healthy 
for whites and blacks, while the rice lands are healthy for 
neither. 
The grape is, generally speaking, a pretty sure crop. 
Dr. McDonald has some thirty or forty acres in vineyard, 
and Mr. de Caradeuc sixteen or eighteen. There have 
been others in South Carolina who long ago attempted 
the culture of the grape. Mr. Herbemont, Mr. Guigniard, 
Mr. Maverick and others, all of whom failed. The stum- 
bling block to those who first made the attempt to raise 
wine, was the cultivation of the foreign grapes. It is 
now reduced to a certainty that they will not do, but that 
our native grapes are eminently successful. Those 
which Dr. McDonald and Mr. A. de Caradeuc plant are 
the Warren, the Isabella and the Catawba. The Warren 
produces the best Madeira, a wine resembling it in char- 
acter; and it is the vine which these experienced gentle- 
men prefer. They also plant largely of the Isabella, and 
the Catawba. These are all native, and no doubt will do 
well over a great portion of our State; and it is our 
opinion these and also the Scuppernong will do well in 
Greenville District, and we think that the time is not very 
distant when we will see a great portion of our hillsides 
covered with vineyards making sixty thousand dollars to 
the hundred acres, or six hundred dollars to the acre, 
which is only a moderate estimate, according to the ealcu- 
lations of those who are realizing that, and a good dnaJ 
