42 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
of pure Arabians, Persians, Turkomans, Cos- 
sack horses of the Don, &c. &c. * * * * 
It fairly makes me sick to see the miserable Ca- 
nadian, and other horses palmed off upon the 
South by glib fellows, who, il they can write an 
article in some agricultural paper, are set down 
at once as great judges, though they really know 
nothing upon the subject. There is not one real 
good judge of horses out of one hundred pre- 
tenders, or indeed of stock of any kind.” 
This article is intended as a sort of counter- 
blast to the article on horses in the last number 
of the Cultivatoe; so that if any one shall 
have been induced thereby to think about get- 
ting a Morgan horse, he may be induced hereby 
to look sharp with whom he is about to deal. 
Domestic Wine. 
We have received the bottle of wine, and the 
cuttings of the Uchee Grape, so kindly sent by 
Mr. Peabody, of Columbus. The wine is a 
first-rate article — so pronounced by every one 
who has tasted it. 
Mr. Peabody’s account ot the grape from 
which the wine is made, is as follows : 
Springhill, Ala., January, 1846. 
Dear Sir ; — Your favor of the 16th came duly 
to hand, and in reply to your inquiries respect- 
ing the grape, which my Port Wine is made 
from. I will most cheerfully give you the histo- 
ry of the grape. It is a native grape, which 
abounds on the Banks of the Uchee Creek in 
Russell county, Ala., the bunches are long, very 
compact, and of a jet black color when fully 
ripe. In its native wild state it yields but little 
juice, but that is extremely rich and makes a 
most dedciou.s wine, as you shall judge for your- 
self, for I will send by a gentleman who leaves 
for Augusta in a day or two, a bottle of the 
Black Uchee Port, and some cuttings of the 
grape. 
The bestnf Wine connoisseurs have pronounc- 
ed it equal to the best imported, and altogether 
superior to most of the trash sold for wine. A 
New York importer of wines and liquots of 
some celebrity, on being called in by some gen- 
tlemen (who were discussing the merits of a 
bottle,) to give his opinion, after deliberately 
tasting and closely scrutinizing, said: “Gentle- 
men, I pronounce it a cask of genuine Old Port, 
begot by a ten gallon keg of Muscat.” I think 
you will find it a good decision, for it has the 
bodv of Port, with a little of the Muscat flavor. 
The wine is perfectly pure, not havinga drop of 
any kind of spirits in it. Yours respectfully. 
Chas. a. Peabody. 
. From T\Ir. T. Speed, of Madison, Rlorgan 
county, we have received the tw'o specimens of 
wine mentioned in the following letter. Of the 
specimens, 'hat of the vintage of 1844 is gene- 
rally preferred by those who have tasted both; 
because, as one person said on trying them, 
there is something more manly about it. It is 
equal, in all respects, to the best Madeira. The 
other has more of the character of Muscatel. 
Both are first-rate, each of its kind. 
JAadiso.v, Ga., January 26, 1846. 
Dear- Sir ; — There appears to be some interest 
taken in making domestic wines in different 
sections of the country, and you being editor of 
the Southern Cultivator. I send you two bot- 
tles, the smaller from the vintage of 1844, and 
the larger from the last year’s. If you think 
them to be a good article, and believe the mode 
of making it wmuld be of any interest to your 
readers, I can furnish you the r cipe by which it 
was ma.le. You must excuse the smallness of 
the sample of the vintage of 1344, as 1 only made 
a little to see if it could be made on a small 
scale. Yours, very respectfully. 
T. Speed. 
]\Tadison, Ga., February 7, 1845. 
Dear Sir .-—Yours of the 27th ult. was duly 
received. I herewith give you the recipe by 
which the two bottles of wine I sent you were 
made. 
The grapes should be gathered of a clear, dry 
day, and after the dew is off in the morning. 
They should be picked from the stems, and the 
grapes should then be well mashed. Let them 
remain in the must about eighteen hours. Then 
strain the juice from the must through some to- 
lerable open coarse cloth. Having no barome- 
ter, I used a fresh laid egg. Sweeten with brown 
sugar until the egg rises out of the juice as large 
as a 12^ cents piece. Put it into a cask and 
leave the bung open, and let it ferment four days. 
The cask must be full, so that in its fermenta- 
tion the dregs will rise to the top and be thrown 
oft. As often as two or three times a day fill up 
the cask with some juice kept in reserve for that 
purpose. At the end of the fourth day, draw it 
off as clear from sediment as practicable ; and to 
every ten gallons add one gallon 4th proof Cog- 
niac Brandy. Wash a pint of sand until the wa- 
ter runs clear from it ; add to the sand the whites 
of ten eggs ; beat the eggs and sand well toge- 
ther, but not to a froth; then pour it into the 
cask and bung it closely. The egg and sand 
form a nucleus which carries wiih it all remain- 
ing sediment to the botton, and the wine be- 
comes clear. Let it remain quiet until the last 
(jf October or first of November ; then draw off 
as long as it runs clear. It can then be bottled 
or returned to the cask after the cask is well 
washed. This racking is better to be done on a 
clear day. 
The largest bottle sent you was sweetened un- 
til the egg rose out about the size of a 25 cents 
piece. In 1839 I made t n gallons; il was 
sweetened until the egg rose to the size of our 
new coin 25 cents pieces. Many good judges of 
wine drank of it and pronounced it the best do- 
mestic wine they had ever tasted. I kept some 
of it four years and I thought age improved it 
very much. Yours, very lespectfully, 
T. Speed. 
“ First it blew, and then it snew, and then it thew, 
and then il friz.” Hood, 
The present winter, thus far, (20th Feb.) has 
been unequalled in severity by any one since 
1835. There has been snow in Mississippi, ice 
at Tsew Orleans, cold unequalled before, so far 
as is known to the present inhabitants, at Corpus 
Christi, Texas, and indeed all over the Southern 
States the weather has been steadily, and, at 
times, intensely cold. Here, in Athens, on the 
morning of 21st Dec., the Thermometers show- 
ed, according t© exposure, the cold to be from 4 
to 10 degrees above 0, or 22 to 23 degrees below 
the freezing point. In 1835, on the morning of 
8th February, the mercury stood at 9 degrees be- 
low 0, or 41 degrees below freezing. 
The injury done by the cold of 21st Dec., to 
the grain crop is not so serious as was at first 
apprehended, as peop’e now think. But the a- 
amount of discomfort ensured in consequence of 
the open houses of the South, has been very 
great. The two preceding very mild winters 
put people off their guard, and hence they were 
taken by surprise, when the late cold came. If 
we had anticipated any such state of things, wo 
would have published in due season, the follow- 
ing excellent recipe for keeping one’s-self warm 
in cold weather. We publish it now — andasMr. 
Webster said recently in the Senate, about cer- 
tain memorials against the admission of Texas, 
which he presented after Texas had been admit- 
ted — if they are too late for Texas they may be 
in time for Cuba — so our recipe, though too late 
for this winter may answer for the next. We 
have not tried the recipe ourselves, but it stands 
to reason that it is good, for it is full of very sound 
philosophy, and is, withal, very old ; and what 
is still better than all, it is not very expensive. 
Keeping Warm ALL Winter wn H a Single 
Log of Wood. — To enjoy health, warmth, peace 
of mind and a vigorous constitution, if you have 
nothing else to do, take a log of wood ol mode- 
rate size, carry it to the upper garret and throw 
it from the window into the street, taking care 
of course, not to knock any body on the head; 
this done, run down stairs as fast as you can ; 
take it up again to the garret and do as before. 
Repeat the process until you are sufficiently 
warm — when you may lay away the log for ano- 
ther occasion. — Old Recipe. 
The Late Memphis Convention. 
The following resolutions are appended to the 
report of the Committee on Agriculture : 
1. Resolved, That it is the opinion of this 
Convention that the present depressed condition 
of the cotton planting interests of the South is 
entirely owing to the over-production of Cotton, 
and that the crisis demands some immediate 
well-concerted plan for restoring the equilibrium 
in the cotton market, by equalizing the supply 
and demand. 
2. Resolved, That we believe it practicable 
for the planters of the South to form a compact, 
agreeing on some definite ratio of annual dimi- 
nution of the crop (say about one-third,) for a 
term of years — until they are in a measure re- 
lieved from the evils complained of, by a mani- 
fest revival of a satisfactory demand for their 
great staple. 
3. Resolved, That inasmuch as the proposed 
reduction in the cotton crop, would give rise to a 
new direction oi capital and labor, we recom- 
mend the establishment of manufactories in the 
South as the most profitable investment of said 
capital and labor. 
4. Resolved, That we believe any prompt and 
uniform action on the part ot the cotton planters 
of the South, justifyingthe conclusion that those 
pioposed objects will be successfully carried out, 
would have a most salutary influence on thepre- 
sent price of cotton. 
5. Resolved, Should the attempt in forming a 
compact among the planters of the South, for a 
general reduction of the cotton crop fail, we 
consider it a paramount inducement for them to 
encourage, not only in their own domestic eco- 
nomy, but by the manufacturing of the North, 
every new source for the consumption of the 
raw material. 
6. Resolved, That w'e recommend it asanin- 
violable rule in the economy of every planter, to 
raise an abundance of provisions, and every spe- 
cies of grain and stock that may be required for 
the consumption oi the plantation. And we do 
especially rei ommend the substitution o^ the 
“ comfort” tor the woollen blanket, as an article 
of economy, believing it to be cheaper, more 
healthy, and more comfortable for the use of ne- 
groes. 
7. Resolved, That above all, we believe the 
more frequent formation of Agricultural Socie- 
ties in every Southern State, together with a 
more liberal patronage of Agiicultural periodi- 
cals on the part of planters, would prove power- 
ful agents for the correction of the errors most 
prevalent in our system of agriculture, and for 
inspiring a generous emulation for practical sci- 
ence so eminently conducive to the development 
of all the sources of wealth among us. 
Remarks. — These are the lesolutions. The 
report is a good one— the whole of it, except that 
part which relates to a combination among cot- 
ton planters to reduce the amount of the crop. 
No combination, we think, of that sort can be 
formed in the first place. And in the second, if 
it could be, it would accomplish nothing. The 
elements of failure would be inevitably blended 
with its very organization. Reduction of the 
quantity produced, by such means, is utterly im- 
practicable. 
Of the resolutions, the 6th and 7th are worthy 
of all commendation. The 7th, especially, em- 
bodies suggestions, w'hich, if acted on steadily 
and earnestly, w'ould produce just such results 
as all sound, practical Southern men see the ne- 
cessity of, and would greatly rejoice to see pro- 
duced. 
