SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
377 
THE VINTAGE IN THE WEST — EETTER FROM 
R. Buchanan, Esq. 
•Editors Southern Cultivator — Inmost parts of the 
Ohio Valley the vintage this year will be light. First the 
mildew, and then the rot destroyed over 3 Iths of the 
bunches of Grapes that set on the vines. So that the crop 
will scarcely average more than 75 gallons to the acre in 
this valley. A few vineyards, in peculiarly favorable 
portions, have good crops, but the majority are almost a 
failure. My own Vineyard of 8 acres, yields only 850 
gallons. Had the fruit remained on the vines, a single 
acre would have produced as much. In 1853, I made 
847 gallons to the acre, and my prospects this year, up 
to the 2d July, were equally as good. In Missouri, I am 
happy to say, the crop has been unusually fine; on some 
vineyards enormous. Altogether, a better crop than ever 
produced before, in that State. 
In Illinois it is also good. 
My friends in Tennessee complain of late frosts in the 
spring, and the rot in summer, cutting off more than half 
of their grapes; and in some parts of Georgia the vine- 
yards were injured by late frosts. 
I have heard nothing of late ot Mr. Axt’s estimate of 
1000 gallons to the acre for the third year (from the cut- 
tings) and 2,000 to 2,500 gallons for the fourth and suc- 
ceding years, being realized. I fear he was too sanguine 
in his calculations. The reports from my correspondents 
in Georgia were much below these estimates, but they 
were still so favorable as to lead me to believe that for 
grape culture, it was a better region than ours. 
^me statements have lately been published by the 
ultra-temperance men, that grape culture for wine-making 
was about to be abandoned in the United States ; that it 
was not remunerative unless the wines were greatly adul- 
terated ; and that large sums had been lost in attempts to 
succeed. Nothing can be more silly, or farther from the 
truth than such groundless assertions. 
The Grape, like other crops, is subject to casualities, 
but my own experience thus far, prove it be more reliable 
than even the apple — the hardiest of all our fruits. With 
rme, it has never yet failed to pay more than expenses; 
even this year, the worst we have ever had, it will pay a 
few hundred dollars ; and in good years it pays enormous- 
ly on the investment. Others, who manage with more 
economy than I do, can report still better. The largely 
increased sales of cuttings and roots, every year, satisfies 
me that this cultivation is rapidly spreading, and cannot 
now go back. R. Buchanan. 
Cincinnati^ Ohio, Oct. 1857. 
VINEYARDS — COST OF POSTS — YIEED PER 
Acre, «fec. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — In one of the Colum- 
bus papers I read an article entitled “Grape Growing and 
Wine Making Made Easy,” which was copied into that 
paper from the Sonthern Cultivator . I was really de- 
lighted to see it, for I have been for the last year collecting 
all the information on the field culture of the Grape pos- 
sible, with a view to entering into the business largely. I 
was very sorry that Mr. A. DeCaradeuc did not give an 
estimate of cost per acre of his mode of preparation. The 
posts alone, as you will readily perceive, will be an item of 
no little expense. The rows ought not to be more than 
seven feet apart, and the vines not more than five feet in 
the row. Taking these figures as correct there will be 30 
rows to the acre and 42 canes to the row. 42 by 30 — 12G0. 
One post is necessary to each cane. Whether these post 
be obtained at the saw mill or are hewed out by hand, 
they will cost not less than twenty-five cents a piece de- 
livered on the ground ; 4— 1260— S315. Thus you per- 
ceive it will cost S3 15 per acre for posts. 
I have already subscribed for several Agricultural jour- 
nals and expect next year to become a subscriber for yours. 
Therefore, as one interested, I hope you will furnish 
through the columns of the Southern Cultivator all the 
information you can obtain. The subject is one growing 
in interest daily,and is destined, I think, to increase large- 
ly the wealth of this country. 
I am preparing to set out twenty acres in vines this 
coming winter. My land, I think, is admirably adapted 
to the growth of the vine. It is a sandy soil, high and dry, 
and from 10 to 40 feet to clay. 
Can you tell me the average yield per acre of any of the 
Georgia or South Carolina vineyards ; the cost of prepar- 
ation and cultivation up to the first crop, and the number 
of acres tended per hand I 
You will find ;$'l enclosed for the Southern C^dtivator. 
Please send me the back numbers of this year. 
Yours, most respectfully, 
Jas, R, Rogers. 
Hardaway , Ma., Oct., 1857, 
[We are pleased at the- interest which our correspondent 
feels in this .subject, InU we think he over-estimates the 
cost of the posts, espc. i dly to farmers or planters who 
own extensive forest.-^— the saplings or “thinnings” of 
which may he used for that purpose. Three acres of 
ground laid off in three foot drills and sown in China 
Berries,* thinning the plants to one foot apart in the drill, 
will give, in three years, from thirty to forty thousand ex- 
cellent and durable stakes. The land, during the three 
years, .will only need to be kept as clean as a corn field. 
Many will consider this “too much trouble” — but success 
in vine culture, as in anythingelse, is only to be purchased 
by forethought and industry. Slight, tempotary stakes, 
costing little or nothing, will answer for the first year or 
two, and if the China Berries are sowm in rich ground 
when the cuttings or vines are planted, the stakes will be 
ready when needed. We shall be glad to hear further 
from all the gentlemen who are engaged in this most im- 
portant enterprise — the success of which (when properly 
managed) we are gaining more and more faith in, day by 
day. — Eds.] 
Isabella Grape — Its Origin, &c.— General J. G. Swift, 
of Geneva, New York, in a letter to the National Intelli- 
gencer, gives the following as the origin of the Isabella 
Grape : 
“It originated at Goose Creek, near Charleston, South 
Carolina, and is a hybrid of the native fox and the Bur- 
gundy of the Hugenots. George B. Smith of North 
Carolina brought the grape vine to Smithville in 1809, 
and Mrs. Gibbs took a cutting from Governor Smith’s 
garden to Brooklyn Heights in 1817. In 1819 1 purchased 
the Gibbs place, on Brooklyn Heights, of George Gibbs, 
Esq., who came from Bladen county. North Carolina ; 
Col George Gibbs was from Newport, Rhode Island. In 
1820, from the first well grown vine in my garden, I gave 
cuttings to William Prince, of Flushing, who, in compli- 
ment to Mrs. Switt, proposed to name the grape ‘Louisa.’ 
Mrs. Swift objected, saying Mrs. Gibbs’ ‘Isabella’ was 
the more entitled to the name ; and thus the name. Mr. 
Seaton may remember that in 1822 I gave him and Mr. 
Calhoun, Secretary of War, plants of the Isabella. As 
to the hybrid character of the plant, the two faces of the 
leaves show the upper to be Burgundy and the lower 
Fox. 
*“Pride of India”— Azederoxh. 
