SOUTH'ERN CULTIVATOR 
m 
iriore, on lands much thinner than our poorest mountain 
ridges. The best location for a vineyard, is a hillside 
fronting the east, so as to have it protected from the even- 
ing sun. The approved distance of planting the vines, is 
in rows of eight feet in width, and four feet apart in the 
rows. The grape produces from two to lour hundred gal- 
lons of wine to the acre. 
Is it not strange that our State Agricultural Society has 
not taken a more lively interest in vineyards, grapes and 
vines, than it has 1 We would think a premium offered 
for the best of each of those productions, would elicit 
much light on the subject. We asked Mr. de Caradeuc 
why Dr. McDonald and himself did not exhibit their wine 
and brandy at the Fair, and he observed he would do so 
when there vv’ere premiums offered tor them. We are 
credibly informed that both Mr. James Rose and Mr. 
Henry (iourdin, (gentlemen distinguished for their busi- 
ness habits, their elegant hospitality, and their great judg- 
ment on wines,) have passed considerable encomiums on 
Mr. A. de Caradeuc’s Warren wine. Major Bausket (a 
near neighbor of my brother’s, who is not only one of the 
best lawers of our State, but one of the closest observers) 
has just returned from a trip up the Mississippi river as 
high as Cincinnati, gave us a glowing and graphic de- 
scription of their vineyards. He says every acre that is 
planted in the approved vines, is valued at one thousand 
dollars per acre, Air. N. Longworlh, of Cincinnati, who 
has not only built a wide reputation, but a mammoth es- 
tate by his vineyards, has done it mostly by his Catawba 
grape. Thirty years of his life have been devoted to the 
culture of the grap8,and for fifteen years he tried the foreign 
varieties, on which he failed, as the rest did w’ho tried ^ 
them, and sunk one hundred and twenty thousand dol- 
lars He then turned his attention to the native grapes of 
the country, and in the space of sixteen years has not 
only retrieved his losses, but has amassed seven or eight 
millions of dollars. His taxes the last year amounted to 
eighty-five thousand dollars. What golden harvests must 
he not reap from his still and sparkling Catav/ba I AVe 
have frequently drank it, and so have you. It is a de- 
lightful Champaigne, selling at two dollars a bottle, or 
from six to eight dollars a gallon. We asked the Major 
what he thought of the grape culture '? His answer was ; 
I can see no possibility of its failure. 
What an adjuvant the production of light wines in our 
State will be to the cause of temperance! The Temper- 
ance Societies, led and conducted by their great chief, our 
worthy friend Judge O’Neal, have for a long time fought a 
good, true, and steady fight, against intemperance, A 
powerful ally has now appeared in the field. They can 
now do as old Leatherstocking did when the Prairie was 
on fire — “Let fire fight fire.” The experience of all Eu- 
rope has proved that a wine making country was never 
much given to intemperance. With the expressed juice 
of the grape, the spirits are elevated, and the skin filled 
before reason is dethroned. With distilled or alcoholic | 
liquors, the reverse is the case. But what is this to me or 
to you, Air. Editor 1 We are digressing from our subject. 
We would advise all of our friends to plant out a few 
of the Cawtaba, and a few of the Isabella, Warren and 
Scuppernong vines. These are the most approved grapes 
for making, wine, which will keep well. The Burgundy, 
as a table grape, is thought the most of about Aiken. All 
these, however, are fine. By planting now any one, in a 
year or two, if he desires to establish a vineyard, could 
have a good number of cuttings, and should they not they 
would have an abundance of table grapes. There is such 
a great demand at this time for the cuttings, and roots, 
that it is very difficult to procure them in numbers, Aly 
brother intended planting out fifty acres this sping, but 
Will not be able to get the cuttings. The Warren is the 
»»ost difficult to obtain. From description, I think it must 
be the same which we call in Greenville the “Bunch-clus- 
ters.” 
We also paid a visit to our mutual friend. Air. Wm. 
Gregg, of Kalmia, whom we esteem as one of the greatest 
men of our State, in head and heart. Pie is the father of 
the largest and best conducted factory in the South, the 
Graniteville Factory — one that our State has just reason 
to be proud of. On entering his library, we were pleased 
to see in a neat frame an excellent likeness of yourself. 
We rode with Air. Gregg all over his extensive orchards, 
and found him courteous, kind and communicative. He 
is the great fruitist of the State, and deserves much credit 
for making those barren sand hills more lucrative than the 
most fertile rice or cotton lands of our or any ot\)er State. 
From some thirty or forty acres in peaches, he last year 
cleared and realized S‘5,500. He was busy planting out 
some forty or fifty acres more, and should the year after 
next be a good fruit one, we verily believe he will make 
twelve thousand dollars net from his peach orchard alone, 
in the planting of which great judgment and taste are 
evinced. 
PREPARATION OF GROUND FOR PEAR 
Trees. 
For each row of trees dig a trench two and a half feet 
deep by five wide. Fill up the trench to the depth of 1 
foot with small and broken stones. The ground should 
be so selected that there shall be a gradual descent from 
one end of the trench to the other, to carry away all water 
that may find its way to the bottom of these broken 
stones. For the compost to fill up the remaining one and 
a half feet, use turf from the road-side, or old pastures, 
spading to the depth of 3 or 4 inches — the same having 
been thrown in heaps till rotten, and mixed with some 
lime. Old lime rubbish, such as plaster from torn down 
houses, and old brick-bats, form an admirable admixture. 
A little leaf mould added, is also beneficial. When the 
trench has been filled with this compost, (putting in an 
occasional layer of the best of the original soil with it) place 
the trees selected for planting, on the prepared soil, spread- 
ing out the roots carefully and covering them with the finest 
of the soil. Conclude the operation by mulching with, 
half rotted manure. An excellent mulching and shading 
can also be provided by a top layer of brush or small 
limbs, cut up so as to lie in immediate contact with the soil. 
In the absence of sufficient rains, the mulching should be 
occasionally well watered during the first season, follow- 
ing the planting. The distance between the trees in the 
rows should be 8 feet for^warf trees, or 15 feet for stand- 
ards, Alternating a standard with a dwarf, each dis- 
tant from the other 10 feet, is a very good ph.n, removing 
the dwarf when the standard shall require all the room. 
The rows should be distant apart 12 feet for dwarfs, or 
25 feet for standards. — Ohio Valley Former. 
SEED OF THE SWEET POTATO. 
To John Bausket, Esq. — Sir : — Long ago you offered 
a reward for the seed of the Sweet or Carolina Potato. 
Doubtless it was incredulity of the existence of such seed 
that prompted you to offer the reward. There were a 
great many blooms of the Potato in the fall of 1855, and, 
looking carefully for seeds, (in the calyx, of course) I found 
some three or four of them. Storing them securely away 
in a paper and labeling, I deposited them in my portmonce 
and kept them there until spring; when I planted them 
in my garden, where there were no other potatoes near, 
and set up sentinel sticks around as a guard. After a 
time a little morning-glory-looking plant peeped out from 
the ground, and you may imagine the relief it afforded my 
suspense, when I beheld it taking on the well known fea- 
tures and marks of the not-to-be-mistaken Yam Potato. 
By cutting the vines and planting them I made three or 
