AMERICAN WINE. 
119 
bles, cattle sheds, stock, tools, buildings, and 
farming in its most comprehensive sense, equal 
to anything of the kind in his own country. The 
latter would see an example worthy to be fol¬ 
lowed. 
I noticed in the cattle yard, a vast quantity 
of oak and other leaves, mixed with the manure. 
This is now being hauled out and dropped in 
heaps and covered; and in the fore part of April, 
the corn is planted in checks four feet by six, 
two stalks in a hill to stand, and each hill has 
a shovelful of this coarse manure, and a hand¬ 
ful of lime, which he makes from oyster shells, 
“ picked up about town.” 
Mr. D.’s sweet potatoes, of which he raises 
from 3,000 to 5,000 bushels a-year, are kept in 
a brick house, of which about five feet are 
above and five below ground. The potatoes are 
dug and put away as rapidly as possible, after 
commencing, and have a layer of fine straw 
next the walls, and several ventilators through 
the heap, made of four boards full of holes, 
nailed together. Over these are trap doors, into 
the cockloft, which has outside ventilators, to 
open and shut as required. In this way, with 
the least possible trouble, he keeps sweet pota¬ 
toes through the winter and well into summer. 
Mr. Eve’s plan of manuring is different from 
Mr. D.’s, as he spreads all broadcast and plows 
it in; and he prefers to give the lots manured a 
thorough dressing at once, instead of scattering 
it over a wide surface. All of these bottom 
lands would be improved, most undoubtedly, by 
underdraining. But that never can be done 
while the owners cultivate so much land. And 
it is one of the hardest undertakings to convince 
planters that they would be richer if they did 
not own half so much. This “ swamp land,” as 
it is termed, was once considered inexhaustably 
fertile, and yet, it is now proved by those gentle¬ 
men, as well as others, that no part of their la¬ 
bor pays a more certain profit than manuring. 
Upon the subject of using oak leaves for 
manure, Mr. N. B. Moore, who has had a good 
deal of experience, says that he considers them 
about the poorest vegetable substance he has 
ever tried. He prefers broom straw, or even fine 
straw, and certainly any kind of weeds, crab 
grass, corn stalks, or straw of any kind of grain. 
All of these bottom lands are liable to over¬ 
flow, excepting when the water is kept back by 
dams, or levees, as is the case upon a very great 
portion of all the river lands of the southern 
states. They also have the reputation of being 
unhealthy, and of affording as fine a growth of 
musquitoes as the greatest lover of that kind of 
music could desire. Of the latter, I have no 
doubt. As to health, I believe that draining and 
liming, and improving cultivation will cure that. 
Mr. Moore cultivates his farm principally for 
hay, to sell in town, but he has learned that no 
land, not even the Savannah-River Bottom, can 
be stripped of a crop every year, and yet continue 
to give, and so he keeps carts constantly gath¬ 
ering up manure in the city, which he puts on 
the land at the rate of one horse cart load every 
20 feet, upon every bed, which are all laid off' 
20 feet wide. The manure is first picked up 
about town, with carts and taken to a pile on a 
vacant lot, and from there is hauled to the farm 
in two or four horse wagons, and put in a big 
pile, with a good coat of locomotive cinders, 
and coal ashes covered over the top, where it is 
thoroughly rotted before using; for it is com¬ 
posed of all manner of things gathered up in. 
the streets, yards, and stables. As soon as pos¬ 
sible after it is hauled on the land, it is 
plowed in about two or three inches deep in 
winter, and in the spring, after the weeds have 
got well under way, he plows them all under, 
five or six inches deep, and sows millet, oats, 
peas, barley, clover, grass, &c., and harrows in; 
thus killing the weeds and allowing the crop to 
get a fair start. All the produce is sold or used 
as hay, and also a crop of crab grass. Of the 
latter, he cut up a crop some years ago from 
among the corn upon 100 acres, which he sold 
for $600. 
Mr. Moore, it is proper to remark, was not 
bred a farmer, though now one of the best in 
the country. That is, he makes as much, if not 
more to the hand, than any other man in that 
region; and all because he understands the 
value of manuring, and following a judicious 
system of cultivation, instead of the too common 
skinning one. Besides the profitableness of his 
farming, his farm is kept in the neatest order of 
any one in that neighborhood of neat farmers. 
Altogether, his example is worthy of commen¬ 
dation, and profitable to be noted and followed. 
AMERICAN WINE. 
I discover in a late number of the Agricultu¬ 
rist, a notice of my sparkling Catawba wine. 
Last spring, I received from the province of 
Champagne, through a French gentleman of 
your city, a scientific and experienced manu¬ 
facturer of wines, and while I shall not attempt 
to imitate any of the sparkling wines in Europe, 
I shall be able to produce a pure article, having 
the peculiar flavor of our native grape, and 
equal in all respects to the best imported. I 
believe the natural aroma and flavor will be 
superior. If not, I shall not attempt by artifi¬ 
cial means to imitate foreign wines in this par¬ 
ticular. 
I have been testing the qualities of our native 
grapes for wine, for more than thirty years. 
My lease of life is drawing to a close, and I 
have not many years left to complete the exper¬ 
iment, and must press it. My second wine 
house, 40 feet by 120, four stories high, with 
the lower cellar, 23 feet below the surface of 
the ground, will be completed in the spring. 
Last spring, I grafted twenty-four varieties of 
new kinds of native grapes, the cuttings of 
which were sent me from various parts of the 
United States. Many of them bore fruit, and 
from some of them, I made small samples of 
wine. A few of them promise well for the 
table and for wine. The common fox grape 
can never be of any value whatever. Neither 
can foreign grapes be cultivated to advantage 
in the open ground, even when obtained from 
a cold region. I have fully tested this. 
Cincinnati , Jan 1850. N. Longworth, 
