AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
FOR THE 
TUarm, Grarden, and. Tdonseliold. 
“ AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.” —Washington. 
ORANGE JUDD, A.M., 
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 
Office, 41 Park Row, (Times Buildings.) 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
Published Lotli in English and German. 
($1.00 PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE 
■j SINGLE NUMBER, 10 CENTS. 
( For Contents, Terms, etc., see page 353. 
VOLUME XXI—No. 11. NEW-YORK, NOVEMBER, 1862. NEW SERIES-No. 190. 
Entered according to act of Congress in tire year 1862, by 
Orange Jtod, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of 
the United States for the Southern District of New-York. 
SW Other Journals are invited to copy desirable artieies 
freely, if each article be credited to American Agriculturist. 
83?" See pages 346, 349 and 353, this month. 
11 
J) A. 
November. 
“ These rule* consider well, with early care 
The vineyard destined for the vines prepare ; 
But long before the planting, dig the ground 
With furrows deep, that cast a rising mound : 
The clods exposed to winter winds will bake ; 
For putrid earth will best in vineyards take, 
And hoary frosts, after the painful toil 
Of delving winds, will rot the mellow soil.”— Virgil. 
There are many indications now of rapid pro¬ 
gress in vine culture in this country. Until the 
present generation, the supposition has been gen¬ 
eral among all, who have bestowed a thought 
upon the subject, that there was something pe¬ 
culiar in our climate that forbade the successful 
cultivation of the finer varieties of grapes. 
Grapes that flourish in southern Europe, here 
needed the protection of glass to bring good 
clusters. In the open air they were, almost with 
out exception, sad failures. The cultivation of 
the vine goes hand in hand with a high civiliza¬ 
tion, and it is not until § people have done their 
pioneer work, and begin to demand luxuries, 
that they will be likely to succeed with the vine, 
whatever their soil and climate. There will be 
little demand for the products of the vine ; and 
the requisite skill to manage vines, and to man , 
ufacture wine, will not be called forth. Our 
position hitherto has been that of a pioneer peo¬ 
ple. For two centuries we have been getting 
ready to live, rather than living. Our work has 
been the leveling of forests, the opening of 
farms, the building of bridges, roads, railways, 
ships and steamers. Our luxuries have come 
mainly from abroad. We have furnished the raw 
material—wool, hemp, cotton—and other na¬ 
tions have manufactured for us. We have been 
so intent upon the necessities of life, that we 
have overlooked its comforts and luxuries. We 
have, as a general thing, been content with the 
rudest and most unskilled labor, adequate only 
to produce coarse fare and coarse clothing. 
It requires much more care and knowledge to 
manage a vine than a cane or cotton plant. It 
must have skill in its planting, in directing its 
growth, in thinning and harvesting the clusters, 
in marketing them or in making wine. It indi¬ 
cates a new era m a nation’s history when they 
become vine growers. Their golden age ap¬ 
proaches, when every man “ sits under his own 
vine.” Wild vines have always flourished upon 
our soil, and to an uneducated taste they are a 
tolerable fruit. But almost every one, after.eat¬ 
ing well ripened Catawbas, or, better still, Del¬ 
awares, pronounces the wild fruit worthless. 
Even if the fruit were better, there are serious 
: objections to cultivating the wild vines. They 
are not very productive, the berries fall early 
from the stem, and they do not improve by cul¬ 
tivation. Since the introduction of new varieties 
which ripen as early as the wild natives, there is 
nothing to be said in favor of the latter. 
The Isabella and the Catawba were the pio¬ 
neers among the improved varieties, and have 
done a great and good work in educating' the 
taste of the people, and starting amateurs upon 
a career of improvement. The Diana followed, 
a seedling of the Catawba, an earlier and a much 
better grape. This has not yet been before the 
public twenty years. When well grown it leaves 
little to be desired in all the qualities of a good 
grape. It abounds in a fine, rich juice, vinous 
and aromatic, from which all the offensive 
native odor has disappeared. It hangs upon 
the vines for a long time, is not injured by 
frosts after it is ripe, and keeps well for winter 
use. It is said to make good raisins, but how 
extensive the experiments were upon which this 
opinion is founded, we are not well informed. 
It is exceedingly productive and very vigorous. 
Within the last five years the candidates for 
popular favor have multiplied exceedingly, and 
at the exhibitions of our horticultural fans the 
grapes are crowding in more and more every 
year. The latest’and best information upon the 
merits of these new grapes is embodied in the 
reports of the American Pomological Society, 
especially in the reports of the State and dis¬ 
trict committees. In a compilation of these re¬ 
ports recently published under the auspices of 
the Society,, it appears that the Catawba does 
well in twelve of the 35 districts into which the 
northern fruit-growing belt is divided. This 
belt embraces all north of the southern line of 
Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri, east of the 
Rocky Mountains. The Concord flourishes in 
twenty of these districts. The Delaware in nine¬ 
teen, the Isabella in fourteen, the Hartford Pro¬ 
lific in ten, the Clinton in nine, the Rebecca in 
eight, and the Diana in eighteen. It would not 
perhaps he fair to infer that these grapes are 
failures in the rest of the districts, except in the 
case of the Isabella and the Catawba. These 
have been long enough before the public for a 
fair trial, and it is well known that the season is 
too short for them north of the southern line of 
Massachusetts. Some of the most promising 
grapes are yet in the hands of amateurs, and it 
is quite possible that these will throw every 
thing we now hava into the shade. We saw 
clusters at the recent meeting of the Pomologi¬ 
cal Society that would have done credit to hot¬ 
house cultivation'; they certainly surpassed all 
we ever expected to see of hardy grapes, grown 
in this country. We think fruit-growers have 
every reason to persevere in their efforts to hy¬ 
bridize, and to originate new sorts better adapt¬ 
ed to our climate, to plant vineyards, and to 
make grapes the fruit of the million. The last 
census throws some light upon the progress 
which vine culture is making among us. The 
increase of our population in the last decade is 
shown to be thirty-five per cent.; increase of 
the products of the orchard, one hundred and 
sixty per cent.; increase of wine,.seven hundred 
and fifty per cent. This increase is doubtless 
largest in the valley of the Ohio, stimulated by 
the example of Longworth, and his fellow 
laborers; but in almost every northern State 
attention is turned in this direction, and small 
vineyards are planted and made profitable. 
Our population is so large and the price of 
grapes is so high in our cities and villages, that 
little has yet been done at wine making, beyond 
the domestic manufacture. The products of the 
vine in this region, will he likely to he marketed 
in the shape of fruit for many years to come. 
Grapes at ten cents a pound can not be made 
into wine economically. 
We do not apprehend the peril to the cause 
of temperance from vine culture which some 
very honestly cherish. Nor do we believe, with 
others, that the making of pure wine from our 
own prolific vineyards will have any tendency 
to abate the evils of drunkenness. The cure of 
that evil lies a little further back than the scarc¬ 
ity or abundance of intoxicating drinks, or the 
higher or lower grade of alcohol in them. The 
young slide into drinking habits from the want 
of proper food and moral influences at home. 
The food is coarse and heating, and without 
much variety. The home is without refinement 
and without attractions. The boy has a restless 
craving for what he does not find at home, 
seeks society, and finds bad company and ad • 
visers in places of vicious resort. A strong 
temptation is removed when the young have 
variety and the luxury of delicious fruits, intel¬ 
ligent society and happiness under the parental 
roof. We want vines for our homes, for orna¬ 
ment and for fruit, and it will be scores of years, 
with the best labors of all our amateurs and 
nurserymen, before good grapes in their season 
will he common upon the tables of all classes. 
Let us plant vines in larger numbers, not doubt¬ 
ing that He who gives the clusters will give us 
and our children wisdom to use them rightly. 
