SOUTHERN cultivator. 
46 
miles further than Aiken, lies a considerable extent of 
Taroken land, the principal growth of wWoh is the noble 
Pine, intermixed witli the stunted Scrub Oak and Black- 
iack, with occasionally some Hickory and other trees. I 
Vill speak at present only of that narrow strip h’orn fifteen 
to twenty miles in length, most easily accessible from the 
Railroad. It is apart of a vast plateau, extending over a 
portion of our Slate, and I believe of Georgia, at an eleva- 
tion of from 500 to 800 feet above the level of the sea; be- 
ing just at that particular height where the miasma and 
the damp and heavy atmosphere of the lower country, so 
fatal to health and so destructive to the lungs, can notpos- 
■sibly ascend, and where the air has not yet acquired that 
degree of rarefaction and that keenness, fatal to those hav- 
ing already the germ of consumption. I need say nothing 
more of its climate ; it is of world-wide celebrity. This 
plateau is, in many places, very much broken ; it is in- 
tersected and crossed by valleys (formerly the beds of 
deep rivers) varying in depth and in width ; sometimes 
with high, steep and rugged embankments, often crowned 
with huge masses of Granite or Burr Stone thrown up, 
and then rent asunder by some terrible convulsion of Na- 
ture, and threatening destruction to all beneath, and at 
other times gradually sloping to the bottom, where a gentle 
rivulet wends its quiet and shaded way to some mightier 
stream. 
The quality of the soil there varies as much as its sur- 
face ; the bottom of the valley is often very rich, and when 
well cultivated will yield abundant crops of grain, pota- 
toes, etc. The unbroken lands or levels are of a very fair 
quality; and all who have ever tried the experiment will 
certify to the fact that they improve very rapidly by pro- 
per management and a free use of manure, the good effects 
of which they will retain for several years. 
Now, Mr. Merchant, go and purchase a small form, say 
from 1 00 to 200 acres, even smaller if your means are 
limited ; you can buy land for from S2. 50 to S5 per acre ; 
build yourself a comfortable cottage (lumber is cheap and 
plentiful.) Put on your farm an old negro to plant your 
vegetables and gather your fruit; his wife to raise your 
chickens and your pigs, and to take care of your dairy ; 
his son to attend to your vineyard, and some little ones to 
run about. This will form the capital you are to invest. 
You generally wish to get your children out of the heat- 
■edand dusty city by the middle of July. Take them up 
to your farm ; give them a run in your orchards in search 
of fruit and rosy cheeks ; buy you a season ticket on the 
Ruilroa.d, and come up every week to enjoy their innocent 
pleasures and improvement. The trip will be an im- 
men.se benefit to you, and with renewed health and 
strength you will resume your winter business with more 
energy, and they their studies with more pleasure and 
success, i our orchard and garden will supply your table 
and your friend's table with choice fruit and vegetables; 
and your investment will not be dead capital on your 
hands. 
A vineyard of six acres will yield you, at the end of 3 
or 4 years, an interest of 50 or 100 percent. Be not scep- 
tical as to the quality of the wine. This is no more a prob- 
lem ! it is pi'actically proved that v/ine of first quality can 
be made in large quantities; keeps as well as Madeira, 
and this without the addition of spirits. Why, this is the 
finest country in the world for wine ! and should the grape 
disease continue its ravages in the old countries as there 
is every reason to suppose it will, we shall have to supply 
.not only America, but Europe also. Good, pure, whole- 
some juice of the grape will always command a fair price ; 
-we need not dread competition, for the more of us will be- 
come wine-growers, the more will we improve in the 
manufactory, and the greater will be the demand for home 
consumption. 
It docs not require at great stretch of imagination to 
fancy our piney woods transformed into vineyards, and 
this entire section studded with neat cottages (if not 
chateaux) each sending to mraket from 50 to 100 barrels of 
their own particular and renowned brand, dry, sweet or 
sparkling. We have all in our favor ; everything to en- 
courage us in this enterprise ; it promotes morality and 
temperance more than any other measure yet suggested ; 
it improves and enriches the country; it conduces to 
health and comfort; is a highly profitable and an agree- 
able employment for any man ; requires but a very small 
outlay, and would ruin no one, even should tlie experi- 
ment be a failure. 
Why not try it I 
Tell me not that your business would not allow you to 
devote sufficient time to it ! Six weeks in summei when 
there is nothing doing in your cities, will more than suf- 
fice to gather and press your fruit; one week in winter to 
draw your wine, and occasionally a visit to see that all is 
going on right. 
I again repeat, try it, and you will never repent. 
A. C. 
Sauth Carolina, 1855. 
Remarks. — We thank the author for the foregoing 
very suggestive article, and fully endorse his views of the 
ultimate profit of Vine Culture in th« South. If grape- 
growing can be made remunerative at the North and 
West, it surely must prove doubly so in our more genial 
clime. A correspondent of the Country QcnHeman, 
from Naples, Ontario county. New York, gives a case of an 
acre of ground planted with Isabella Grapes, which in the 
season of 1853, yielded to the value ot $800 worth by 
actual sales. During the season of 1854, the product was 
ten tons of fruit, which, at six cents per pound, would 
amount to $1200. The cost of tending and picking, he 
estimates at not more than $400, which would leave a 
clean profit of $800, for one acre of land. The vinery is 
situated at the base of a hill, in a valley sheltered from 
winds, has a sandy, gravely soil, and is highly manured. 
Between the rows of the grapes, potatoes and ©the® vege- 
tables are usually planted. 
The Ohio Farmer, of a late date, also gives us the fol- 
lowing ; 
" Large Yield op Grapes. — Charles Carpenter, of 
Kelley’s Island, one of the most successful cultivators of 
grapes in this country, from a single acre of his own 
growing, last season, expressed SOO gallons of juice, mak- 
700 gallons of wine. Besides this he sold $100 worth of 
grapes, and his family and some fifteen hands ate all they 
chose during the season. This single acre yielded at least 
$1200, and it was the poorest season they have ever had 
at the Island for grapes.” 
And a letter from a Kentucliy wine-grower is published 
in the last number of PutnarruS Magazine, in wnich the 
writer states : 
“W^ine can be made in Kentucky as cheap as in Ger- 
many or in France ; it can be made as cheap as cider, 
and at 15 cents a gallon it will pay better than any of our 
staple productions — and now for the proof. Say that an 
acre of vines will average 400 .gallons; 400 gallons of wine 
at 15 cents is $60, 
“An acre of our land in hemp will average GOO weight, 
which at $5 per hundred is $30, leaving a ballpnce in 
favor of the vineyard of $30, or ICO per cent. 
“One acre of corn will average 50 bushels, say at 30 
cents per bushel, $15— leaving a balance of $45, ©r 150 
per cent in favor of the vineyard, 
“The expenses of establishing a vineyard will be bal- 
anced by the cost of seeds of hemp and corn sown annual- 
ly, making all things equal in that respect. The tillage of 
, the vineyard and making wine is not so laborious or ex- 
