28 
CULTURE OF THE GRAPE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
CULTURE OF THE GRAPE IN THE 
SOUTHERN STATES. 
For the successful cultivation and abundant pro¬ 
duction of nearly a.T the fruits which more properly 
belong to temperate climates, the United States 
stand pre-eminent. In no part of the world, are 
apples found so abundantly as in this country ; and 
American apples are celebrated throughout Nor¬ 
thern Europe. In no part of France, or even Bel¬ 
gium, the country of pears, can that fruit he shown 
in so great perfection or abundance as in the vicini¬ 
ty of Boston, and the northern sea board. And 
even in England, the pear is so rare, that those 
of the Chaumantelle variety, grown in the island of 
Jersey, are sold in London, for five guineas per 
hundred. Peaches are luxuries found only upon 
the tables of the wealthy in northern Europe ; and 
are mostly carefully cultivated on walls. Yet 
here, on Long Island, and further south, they 
are grown as easily as cabbages; and immense quanti¬ 
ties of most delicious varieties, are sold during the 
season in New York market, at fifty cents to one 
dollar per bushel. Yet noth withstanding the great 
abundance of these fruits, and of the various kinds 
of melons, we are decidedly behind Europe, in the 
cultivation of the grape. This is doubtless owing 
in a great measure, to natural causes ; but there is 
also a deficiency of well adapted experiments in 
those climates, which approach very nearly in tem¬ 
perature to those of the south of France and Italy. 
There are many varieties of the grape indige¬ 
nous to this country, yet with the exception of the 
Isabella and Catawba, they are nearly all worthless ; 
and among the many varieties of native grapes, 
which are brought forward as something superior, 
we have never found one whose merits would en¬ 
title it to a place by the side of the Isabella and Ca¬ 
tawba. The qualities of the Isabella are well 
known ; with us the Catawba is its superior, and 
we have had specimens grown by a vine trained 
upon an old apple tree, and without pruning or cul¬ 
tivation, which would compare favorably with the 
black Hamburg. This variety will not, however, 
answer at Boston, or in many other situations ; its 
ripening requires a longer season, and it is also more 
liable than the Isabella to the attacks of the rose 
bug. Between these two grapes and some of the 
foreign varieties, byorids could doubtless be pro¬ 
duced, which would possess the hardy character of 
the former, with the delicious qualities of the latter. 
In the production of these, there is a wide field 
open for experiment among amateurs of leisure; and 
I hope they will occupy it, for the pre-eminently de¬ 
licious qualities of the grape render it particularly 
worthy of their attention. For our present pur¬ 
pose, however, we must rely upon the varieties 
which already exist, and which are produced in 
abundance in Europe. 
I am aware that many of these varieties have 
been obtained by Southern gentlemen, and planted 
with care; and yet, notwithstanding the utmost 
attention, rot and mildew have been invariably their 
attendants. These experiments have, however, 
been made near the Southern sea board, where the 
atmosphere is continually charged with moisture 
from the large tracts cf low and swampy lands, 
which exist there in every direction. I have never 
heard of these varieties being fairly tested, on the 
high land in the interior; on the slopes of the 
Alleghanies, where the air is dry, clear, and bracing ; 
and where one would suppose that no mildew not 
rot could approach the fruit. Even at Aiken, only 
one hundred miles from Charleston, I was much 
struck with the dryness of the air, and its adapta¬ 
tion to the culture of the grape. 
It is not, however, a dry air only that is necessary 
for the culture of the grape; the soil is an impor¬ 
tant requisite, and I deem our rich, retentive, alluvial 
virgin soil, by no means beneficial, if not positive¬ 
ly injurious. A soil that has been repeatedly culti¬ 
vated and turned up to the influence of the sun, or 
one that is slaty and porous, drawing the sun to the 
roots and carrying the moisture from them, is, even 
with a moderate degree of fertility, one of the very 
best. Of this latter character is much of the soil 
in the vineyards in France and Germany; and in 
these countries I have frequently seen hills, so steep 
that I could scarcely climb them, and whose soil 
was composed mainly of slaty stones, yet covered 
with vines to the very summits, and producing annu¬ 
ally large crops of perfect fruit. I am inclined to 
think that there exists in our new and virgin soil, 
or rather perhaps arises from it, a miasmatic influ¬ 
ence as poisonous to fruits as to human life ; and 
this perhaps produces the mildew, which it is so 
difficult to drive from the grape and gooseberry, in 
the open air. I am rather strengthened in this 
opinion, by the fact that in England, where the soil, 
by repeated cultivation, has been purged of this mi¬ 
asma, the gooseberry arrives at great perfection, with 
scarcely a taint of mildew; and the black Hamburg 
grape also ripens well in the southern counties, in 
the open air. There it is, that the atmosphere 
rather than the soil is impregnated with moisture ; 
for it is questionable whether more rain falls in 
England than in this country. There it rains 
gently, here the clouds pour forth their contents. 
Moisture in the soil is doubtless one of the 
exciting causes of this miasma ; but there are 
others, and a whole section must be purged of them 
before any particular locality therein can be made 
suitable for grape culture. Our Northern States 
have been longer and more highly cultivated 
generally than the Southern, and there is less allu¬ 
vial character in the soil ; thus it is that the Isa¬ 
bella rarely rots here on the vine, while at the 
South, I am informed, it very frequently does. I 
am thus inclined to think that the grape can never 
be successfully and extensively grown on the 
Southern sea board, until the whole country shall 
have been thoroughly drained and cultivated for at 
least a quarter of a century. The case is different, 
however, with the mountain slopes of the interior, 
where a large section of country can be found free 
from any of these miasmatic influences. 
The special object of this article is, to encour¬ 
age the culture of the grape in these sections oi 
the South, from the Gulf of Mexico to the nor¬ 
thern line of Virginia. It is only by repeated ex¬ 
periment, that the adaptation of any soil or climate 
to a particular variety of fruit, can be ascertained, 
and I hope some one at the South, or rather many 
in different parts of the South, will give this fruit 
that careful attention which success inquires ; and 
if the feasibility of its extensive culture there 
should once be satisfactorily decided, I am satisfied 
