336 
SOUTHEKNCULTIVATOR. 
GKAPE CULTUEE IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — I see by the August 
number of your much esteemed paper, an inquiry relative 
to Grape Culture in the South, over the signature of 
“J. S. G.” If you will permit me to give him my views 
on the subject, through your valuable paper, I will en- 
deavor to do so, if you think any benefit will be derived 
from them, I have been all my life working in and at- 
tending to my father’s (S. Weller) Vineyard and Nurse- 
ry, and since his death I have taken the management 
thereof 
He (J. S. G.) first wishes to know what kind of Grapes 
are best adapted for the South '? I answer, unhesitatingly, 
the Scuppernong Grape Vines are the best, for the fol- 
lowing reasons : 
1st. This vine is the most thrifty in growth, on any 
kind of soil, poor or rich. After they get fairly started, 
they will grow on ordinarily good soil, upon a scaffold 10 
feet high, and will cover two, three or four feet, all around, 
in one season, owing, almost altogether to the strength of 
the soil. 
2d. They will produce at least three-fourths more 
grapes on the same land than any other grape vines I 
have ever known, or of which I have ever heard ; having 
tried from 150 to 200 kinds, including a good many foreign 
kinds ; besides, I have known one vine to produce enough 
grapes to make 50 gallons of wine. 
His second inquiry is, what time is best for plantingjl 
There are different opinions on this subject; some think 
autumn, some spring ; but I think, as they are very hardy 
vines, enduring a great deal of cold without receiving any 
material damage, that any time between fall and early 
spring will do. It is, however, not best to wait till the 
sap is too far gone when planted in the spring to admit 
of their receiving enough to promote growth, &c. 
The third inquiry is, what period from planting to pro- 
ducing 'I That is somewhat owing to the strength of the 
soil ; if the soil on which they are planted is good, they will 
commence producing in two or three years, and increase 
prodigiously every year afterwards. 
The fourth inquiry is, how are they to be cultivated 'I 
Set them out about 20 feet apart, and while they are young, 
beans, cotton or any thing of that kind can be cultivated 
with them till the vines have obtained too large a size to 
admit of anything being cultivated underneath. By that 
means, the vines will be cultivated sufficiently, but care 
should be taken to keep them clear of grass and weeds 
during the whole summer. After they become too large 
to admit of anything being cultivated with them, keep 
them clear of grass and weeds as before stated by a plow 
that will go no deeper than to scarify or root up th,e grass 
and weeds. 
Prune them while young, till the body gets to be about 
ten feet high, then let them branch off in every direction 
without pruning. I make a variety of kinds of wine 
from the Scuppernong Grape, that sells from one to four 
dollars per gallon, according to quality. It always sells 
betrer than wine made of other grapes : moreover, the 
Scuppernong wine is in greater demand in the South than 
any other wine made of native grapes. Hoping I have 
answered Mr. “J. S. G.’s” inquiries satisfactorily, I sub- 
scribe myself Most respectfully, 
John H. Wbller. 
BrinkleijviUe, N. C,, S&pt., 1855. 
Vermin on Animals and Trees. — It is stated by Ras- 
pail, one of the best French chemists, that a solution of 
aloes, washed over the trunks and branches of trees with 
a brush, will destroy all vermin on plants and trees. 
OUR LATE (GEORGIA) 
To Charles Query, Esq.: 
My Dear ChoMes — Your esteemed favor u and. 
Many thanks for the box of dried Figs, and the toys for 
the children. I suppose you cured the figs by the recipe 
I gave your lamented father a few years ; ago, viz.: — By 
boiling the fruit when nearly ripe for a ffiw minntes in 
syrup, and drying on tin sheets in the sun. 
I know not how I can answer your letter better than by 
replying to your several questions as they occur. 
You ask me if the exhibition was not a poor one, com- 
pared with those we have had in former years. It was so 
in some respects. The early season at which the Fair 
came off, excluded from the grounds what should always 
be a prominent feature in an Agricultural Exhibition. I 
mean the Field Crops. It is very gratifying on such oc- 
casions, to see bags of Corn, Potatoes, Wheat, Rice and 
the like, challenging attention. The exhibition of Stock 
also, was not as large as usual. For this we are indebted, 
in a great measure, to the unaccommodating spirit dis- 
played by the managers of the State Road, who charged 
freight on all animals brought over that Road. Of course, 
where the freight amounted to more than the value of the 
premium, and owners were not flush of money, both the 
people and the stock stopped away, thus lessening our 
dividends on the only Rail Road in which we have any 
interest. For this cause, and this alone, a number of us, 
Democrats, determined not to vote for Johnson at the 
late election. Nor will we ever vote for a man who is 
blind to the Agricultural interests of the country . 
You ask why I did not show my “fine bull, Nero 
For a good reason. T think Nero the best bull in the 
Southern States, and you think so too ; and so think all 
the gentlemen who have bred from him. His form is per- 
fect and his pedigree satisfactory to all the Devon fanciers 
in our neigborhood. But Nero’s father, old “Jugurtha,’^ 
you will remember, was a very docile animal, always 
poking about the kitchen door and sticking his nose into 
the pots. On one occasion, he got his nose a good deal 
black. Now, it so happened that “Cleopatra,” the mother 
of Nero, was in a “certain way” at the time, by which 
accident the black nose of Jugurtha was entailed on my 
bull. This statement I had from the lips of Gen. Alber- 
GOTiE, who bred Nero, and you know that there is not a 
man of stricter veracity in the county. The bull might 
have been ruled out on account of the dark appearance 
about his nose, which would have injured the reputation 
of the stock of fifty persons who have bred from him. 
It was nothing but the apprehension of the same thing 
that kept Simon Kicklighter from showing the finest 
Devon Cow I have ever laid my eyes on. With her first 
calf, she gave fifteen quarts and a half pint of the best milk 
— measured after the froth had fallen. But his cow has a 
little white about her udder, which mark, the books tell 
us “is sometimes passed over” in Devonshire; but which 
we know would condemn a cow at our Fair. He would 
not send his Durham Cow, because he expected Col 2 
Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, to take the first 
^ premium, and no premium was offered for the second 
best. 
You ask me why John did not receive a premium for 
his Cabbages '? There was none offered, and although 
sonae of the heads weighed 12 pounds each, he concluded 
that he would not travel a hundred miles and pay for 
the honor of showing a dozen heads of Cabbage. Joseph 
came to the same conclusion about his Beets. The truth 
is, the boys never saw the Premium List until a week be- 
fore the Fair, or they would never have given so much at- 
tention to their vegetables. 
Jane concluded that as she was going with her mother 
