32 
COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 
Culture of the Vine in America. —There are two varieties 
of the scuppernong grape, the black and the white, both possessing 
very similar qualities. The young wood is very slender, the leaves 
shining above and beneath, the fruit juicy and sweet. A wine of 
an excellent and peculiar flavour is made from these grapes. In 
North Carolina, many barrels are made in one season from a single 
vine. They are usually trained on arbours, over the large courts which 
separate the main portion of the houses from the kitchens, the latter 
being commonly placed behind in the rear. A single vine will soon 
cover a space of one hundred feet by forty, and bear as much as forty 
bushels of good grapes. The climate of New England is not well 
suited to the sort of grape; but in Carolina they are said to flourish, 
and their roots will find nourishment in dry sandy land, good for 
nothing else. 
The numerous flourishing vineyards of America, which have of 
late years been established, in the middle, southern, and western 
States, for the manufacture of wines, consist chiefly of the native 
varieties, which are the Catawba, Isabella, Alexanders, Longhborough, 
Scuppernong, and Worthington. The wine of this last grape mixed 
with that of Schuylkill, gives it a degree of roughness between port 
and claret. The American sorts are found to do by far the best in 
American vineyards. It was found to be a capital error, in planting 
the European kinds in preference to their own. The American sorts 
require no protection during winter. The long canes produced in a 
single year, if left to themselves, would break and produce fruit only 
at their extremities, but this is remedied by art, which the cultivators 
abor t Boston perfectly understand, and where amazing crops are 
produced. Before vegetation commences, the rods of the former 
years’ growth are tied in a coil. By this treatment the buds break 
and grow equally from the extremity to the base. When the buds 
have grown an inch or a little more, the rods are uncoiled and 
secured in their destined situations on the trellis. The practice of 
training vines in a serpentine or spiral manner is not new, but is too 
little known and too much neglected. M. Saul. 
Reading Society at Lancaster.— A society is now being 
formed in this town, for taking in all the periodicals published in 
Britain and America; on gardening and botanv, which I have no 
doubt will be of immense benefit. The expense will be trifling. It 
is fully expected, that the plans and arrangements will be completed 
so as to commence on the 2nd of January, 1834. 
M. Saul. 
