SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR 
223 
are picked from the stems, washed up and allowed to 
stand for about 24 hours, after which the juice is drawn 
oif, and the pummice pressed in a common cider press. 
The juice is very abundant, leaving but a small quantity 
of pummice, and after being filled into a cask, so as to 
leave space for fermentation, is left to itself for about 10 
days, when the fermenting process*is ceasing. Some 
sugar is then added, the cask filled up, and the bung close4 
tight. After some months, the wine is drawn off in anoth- 
er cask, where it is to remain until wanted. ■ 
The wine resembles the Madeira, high flavored and 
mild ; and being the pure grape- juice, it is' higlily prefer- 
able to the huported Madeira and Sherry wines, always 
adulterated with brandy and other deleterious stuff. While 
such drugged wines are constantly sold at from S3 to $4 
per gallon, hlr. Leary has sold his pure wine at the very 
low price of SI 50 per gallon. 
Other grapes may, after a fair trial, be found valuably 
here, and I am now trying several kinds ; but I am doubt- 
ful whether" we will find a better or more profitable grape 
for this latitude than the Warrenton.” 
Mr. Leary deserves great credit for his perseverance 
and skill in producing this wine. He intends to enlarge 
his vineyard considerably, finding it by far the most pro- 
fitable and the surest crop he possibly can raise, requiring, 
comparatively, but little labor. 
I will leave it to all tillers of the soil to make their own 
cyphering, and they will see for themselves what difference 
of profits there is between wine and cotton. It is to be 
hoped that other persons would take this hint, and thus 
begin a new epoch in Southern fruit-culture. 
Robert Nelson. 
Macon ^ Ga., May', 1855. 
Remarks. — Accompanying the above communication, 
friend Nelson sent us a couple of bottles of Mr. Leary’s 
wine. It is equal, if not superior to the best Madeira of 
comm.erce, both in body and ai'oma, though it leaves be- 
hind it none of the unpleasant effects of the adulterated 
wines we import at high prices from abroad. We are 
very thankful to Mr. Nelson for the foregoing clear and 
practical article, and hope it will not be lost upon our 
enterprising readers. — Eds. 
FRUIT TREES, AND LOCUSTS. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I notice that the 
locusts are plenty in several sections of the country; be- 
fore they leave they will puncture all the tender branches 
of fruit trees and deposit their eggs ; and my object in 
writing to you is to advise« all those who find their trees 
injured by them to, at once, prune them off, even if they 
leave but a, bare pole. Four years ago they injured my- 
fruit trees very much, particularly the Pear, tfte Apple 
and Peach, and nearly ruined a thriving young orchard 
of Pears and Apples. 1 commenced the first year to* cut 
off part of those branches that were most injured ; the 
next year I did the same, cutang a Little farther back ; last 
year I cut them back still farther, and the present year, I 
am cutting off the whole of the limbs so pifnctured, even 
though some of them are as thick as my wrist, being 
satisfied, from observation, that my trees would be twice 
as large as they now are, had I pruned them clear back 
of every wound the first year. There is no doubt of these 
fects. I have paid very particular attention to the culti- 
vation of fruits for the last fifteen years, and do not trouble 
the public unless I can say something that will be of bene- 
fit. The wounds made by the loscust will be easily seen 
«pon the lower side of the tender branches of old trees and 
«pon all the branches of young trees. 
Respectfully, &c., J.vo. R. Stanford. 
Pomona Hall, Horsham, Co., Ga., June, 1855. 
FINE FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE- 
When we consider the influence the cultivation of Fruit 
exercises on the health and morals of a country, as well 
as on the* wealth and luxury of the people, it may be 
truly said that he who deyotefe his life to the contribution 
and advancement of such influences, confers as great a 
benefit upon them, and follpws as honorable a calling, as 
the msfn who defends his country in time of war, or falls 
by the bullet, or the sword. ' A productive orchard or a 
fruit garden is not only a luxury and a source of enjoy- 
ment to the farmer or man of wealth, but is essential to the 
health, comfort, and well-being of individuals of every 
class. It affords an amusement or occupation to be covet- 
ed beyond all others, and leads to nothing but good — to 
nothing sensual or vicious. It can give rise to no bad 
habits; but on the contrary, will serve to protect a man 
from the allurements of dissipation and its consequent 
evils. 
Our orchard and garden fruits have followed man from 
the earliest periods of civilization, and perhaps have been 
more studied, and consequently better known, than any 
other plants. There are two characteristics, however, 
concerning their cultivation, which are of great importance 
to cultivators. First, the liability of almost every sort to- 
“sport” and produce varieties differing, in many cases, 
more from one another than they differ from other species. 
But let it be considered that when these varieties take 
place, they may not always tend to deteriorate the fruit, 
but may often result in an exchange of one good quality 
for another, or perhaps even exhibit an improvement in 
the qualities. For instance, we may, at least, expect to 
obtain early fruit from the seeds of that which is early, 
and from those of late fruit the reverse ; and by parity of 
reason, from large or small, from sweet or sour, from juicy 
or dry fruit, we may also expect to obtain seedlings that 
will, in a greater or less degree, correspond to their origin 
— a result which it may eften be an object for the prudent 
cultivator to secure. The second characteristic is, that 
nearly every class of fruit is remarkably subject to the at- 
tacks of insects and of disease; for trees, like animals,, 
have inherent 'diseases, or a susceptibility to receive those 
peculiar to their species. Although insects are the direct 
source of many injuries to trees and their fruit, they are 
frequently met with in morbid parts, feculent or putrefy- 
ing from previous malady, and may be regarded as the 
effecU rather than the causes of disease; and accordingly 
should be treated in reference to these facts. 
It may not be without interest to compare the valuation 
of orchard fruits cultivated in this country at different 
periods within the last fifteen years. In 1840, according 
to the census of that year, the value of orchard products 
was S‘7,256,904, besides 124,734 gallons of domestic wine. 
The census of 1850 gives S7, 723,180 worth of orchard 
products, and 221 ,249 gallons of wine, showing only an 
increase of 460,282 in value of fruit, and 90,515 gallons in 
the production of wine ; both of which are unquestion- 
ably too low. The amount of domestic wine make in the 
United States in 1853 may be safely estimated at 2,000,000 
gallons; which, at SL would be worth $2,000,000. Add 
to this $18,000,000 worth of strawberries, blackberries, 
raspberries, cranberries, and orchard products, the value 
of fruit, cider, vinegar, and wine, of domestic growth and 
manufacture, would amount to $20,000,000 . — Patent 
Office Report of 1853. 
