_On the Grape Vine, with its wines, brandies, and dried fruits._
No. 1.
No principle of action in the business and industry of the United
States has been so beneficial to them as the adoption of _new
objects of culture_ by the planters and farmers, whose old objects
of culture were likely to become redundant, and to fall in price.
_Cotton_ and _sugar_ are well known and important examples. There
are good grounds for estimating our whole cotton of our best year,
(Sept. 1817, to Sept. 1818,) at forty-two millions of dollars,
according to the price on the wharves of our sea-ports for that
which was exported to foreign countries, and the price at our
factories, stores, and dwellings, of that which was manufactured at
home. It is now manifest that the East Indian and South American
cotton greatly injure our markets; and as this arises from growing,
permanent, and substantial causes, there is reason to expect the
continuance of the injury to us from the foreign rival cotton
cultivation. A brief and plain view of the history and prospect
of cotton, will be found in the Philadelphia edition (A.D. 1818)
of _Rees' English Cyclopædia_, by Murray, Bradford & Co. under
the article or head of the "_United States_." The facts there
stated, with many known subsequent circumstances, will give rise
to serious reflections, in the minds of the landholder and the
statesman, upon the subject of the protection of the productions
of our own soil. The industry of the landed men of the United
States is manifestly and unalterably much greater than any, and
than all, the other branches of our domestic or national industry.
The mercantile and manufacturing branches result almost entirely
from the landed industry. While, therefore, the legislative and
executive governments raise revenues of 27½ to 60 per cent. on a
great quantity of foreign cotton cloths from India and Europe, and
a greater revenue from the foreign manufactures of tobacco, and a
still greater revenue from the foreign manufactures of grain, of
fruit, and of the cane, to the great fundamental and convenient
support of American manufactures, and while they are free to go
further, if they find it right, in the joint encouragement of our
agricultural and manufacturing industry it will be found beneficial
to the landed interest to inquire into other means of promoting
the prosperity of the _Colossus of our country_--the agricultural
industry.
There can be no doubt that, between the sites of the vineyards
of the Lower Schuylkill, Southwark, of Pennsylvania, Butler, of
Pennsylvania, Glasgow, of Kentucky, New Vevay, of Indiana, and
Harmony, of the same state, on the north, and the coasts of the Gulf
of Mexico, on the south, the United States possess the climates
and soils of "_the vine-covered hills and gay regions of France_."
The sweet orange grows, in safety, in groves and gardens, in the
vicinity of New Orleans, at a greater distance from the sea than
any place of equally safe growth, in Provence or Languedoc, of
France. As our country shall be cleared and drained, our climate
will be still less severe in the states on the Mexican gulf. In the
north, our climates of New Vevay and Harmony, in Indiana, Glasgow,
in Kentucky, 37° to 38° 30' N. which are the present northern
extremes of successful experiments in the vine cultivation, are as
favourable and mild as the climates of Champagne, Tokay, Lorraine,
Burgundy, and Hockheim, which are fine northern regions of the
vine in France and Germany. Between our New Vevay, in Indiana, and
the Gulf of Mexico, the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi,
Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and large
parts of Virginia and Kentucky, must give us _all the vine climates
of France_, _Germany_, _Switzerland_, and _Upper Italy_. This vine
district of the United States is much larger than all those vine
countries of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Upper Italy. The
crop of wine and brandy in the vine country of France alone--though
our vine country is more than twice the size--has been estimated
at 100 millions of dollars. Let us then consider the propriety
of a diligent inquiry into the cultivation of the vine, and the
preparation of wines, brandies, dried fruits, and cremor tartar, in
the United States, in order to maintain the prosperity of the landed
interest by the variety and prices of our crops.
The present duties on foreign distilled and fermented spirits and
liquors, (brandy, gin, rum, arack, wines, beer, ale, and porter,)
and on dried fruits, though laid for revenue, afford a great and
sure encouragement to the establishment and the manufacture of
the grape. The demand will increase with our population, and the
facility and certainty of the culture and crop will grow with the
clearing and draining of our country. Ridges, hills, mountains,
rocky lands, any steep ground, gravelly, stony, sandy, and other
inferior lands, (if only dry,) will yield profit in large crops
or in fine qualities of wine, or both. Fresh and dried grapes are
both favourable to health and frugality. Ripe grapes have been
administered to whole regiments of troops in France, who have been
ravaged by fluxes and dysentaries.[18] The quantity of wine computed
to be produced in France, is ten millions of casks, of nearly 63
gallons each, on two millions of arpents (not 2,000,000 acres) of
land, often not fit for wheat, rice, or tobacco, valued very low,
on a medium at fifty francs the cask or French hogsheads. This is
three times the value of the cotton crop of the U. States, on a
medium value, produced in 1818 or in 1819, and demands our early and
serious attention, particularly from the Gulf of Mexico to the end
of the 39th degree, when the country in that degree shall be cleared
and drained in its wet or marshy parts.
[18] See Doctor Tissot's advice to the people of Lusanne.
It has been already observed, that ridges and hills are the most
suitable shape or form of country for vineyards. The most proper
exposure is from south-east to south. It is believed that all
southern exposures will do. The propagation may be by seeds, or by
cuttings, or by bending and covering a part of an old vine so as to
make it grow out in another place at a proper distance. The plough
is of much use in the cultivation, so that care must be taken to
plant the vines at such distances as to facilitate the use of the
plough and the harrow. The best grapes which can be obtained should
be used, in order to put the culture forward. These may be foreign
or American, native or imported. A harsh grape to the taste may
produce a better wine than was expected, and more and better brandy.
The finest grapes of Europe and the African isles are supposed to be
native wildings improved by culture and selection. The region of the
plum and peach appears to include the region of the vine. Although
the south is the proper sphere of the grape, its cultivation there
will leave the bread grains, tobacco, hemp, the grasses and cattle,
to the more exclusive and profitable culture of the states north
of the proper region of fine and abundant crops of wine. We pay
annually to foreign nations a sum of money for wines, spirits,
and materials to make spirits, and for fresh and dried grapes, as
great as our whole specie medium. So important is this subject, in
various points of view, to all the states, that it is respectfully
recommended to the superintendants of all our public, agricultural,
and philosophical libraries, to procure all the treatises on the
culture of vines and making of grapes which are to be found in the
languages of France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Great Britain.
The experiments made at Harmony in Pennsylvania, at Vevay, on the
Ohio, and Harmony, on the Ouabache, both in Indiana, merit the
utmost attention of the United States. It appears that in the
present uncleared and uncultivated state of the country, Harmony,
on the Ohio, in Penn. was probably too far north for making wine,
though not for fruit. That Vevay and Harmony, in Indiana, are more
suitable climes for the wines, will appear from the following
letter from a respectable gentleman at Vevay to a very respectable
friend of his, lately on a visit to Philadelphia. It is dated the
28th of August, 1819. The intelligent and experienced writer from
Vevay, thus expresses himself: He "thinks the whole of Alabama
doubtless better adapted to the culture of vines than the more
northern country of the United States;[19] because the only two
species of grapes that succeed in the United States are of the late
sort, _having not time at Vevay, (Ind.) to ripen_. The Alabama
season, being longer, will give more time, especially the Madeira
grape, which gives the best wine of the two, where it can ripen and
yields most. But it will not do at all at Vevay; and does better
at Glasgow,[20] Ky. The various gardeners at Kentucky can furnish
some. Vine dressers would go to new vineyards from Vevay. They have
had 500 gallons of wine per acre at Vevay; more often 150; and 260
is a good crop. The Madeira grape would give more than the Cape of
Good Hope grape, _where it would prosper_, but must have time to
ripen, to be good. Of the labour, much may be done by women. They
do about half. The men trim, make layers to fill vacancies, plough,
harrow, hoe, and carry the grapes, and make the wine. None of those
works are heavy. But trimming requires attention and discernment,
for the vine-dresser must look two years before him, when he cuts
each scion; women never do it, though light work. He has seen many
women do it as well as any man. A little work in vineyards is to
be done by night with lamps. When the grapes have got their size,
the crickets, (not of the house or field) eat, in the night, the
bark of the stem of the bunches, and ring or girdle them so that
they die. They injure the bunches rapidly. They must be watched
and searched for with lamps, by night, and destroyed. He says the
native vines will not do to graft good kinds of grapes on: he has
tried it often, without success. Grape vines grafted on the same
kinds do well, yet they are a different tree, being _dioic_, while
the vineferous kinds are _hermaphrodites_. I have found the same
wild vines in Switzerland, and the kind called sour grapes makes
pretty good wines; but are a smaller bearer than the grape vines.
They are in Morerod's vineyard, at Glasgow, Kentucky. The Spanish
grapes of Mexico and South America should be tried. They have
been long cultivated. He is raising grape vines from the seed, to
obtain flavour and quantity of wine. _The vine is of long life_,
but it is ten or fifteen years before it bears _fully_ from the
_seed_. Variety, however, is an object. Vines planted by cuttings,
which have taken root freely in the first year, bear fruit in
three years: in five they are in full force. He has considered and
inspected the vineyards of Europe, and the cultivation by the plough
and otherwise. It is to be studied to _save labour_ and make the
_greatest crops_. If the _fendant vert_ will grow as well here as in
Switzerland, 800 gallons per acre might be made. They cultivate by
the plough in Languedoc, about Montpelier and Lunel. We make wine
here to be like Madeira, and sell it at 37½ cents per quart,
and $1 25 per gallon; but cannot make enough to send abroad, or
to keep for ripening. Morerod made a cask of 800 gallons, full of
wine, of last vintage, to be kept eighteen months or two years. He
has seen wine (made of grapes like Vevay) at Glasgow, (in Barren
county, Kentucky,) better than Vevay wine. The grapes were gathered
a fortnight before the Vevay grapes. It is probable that wine of the
banks of Tennessee will make 1-4 brandy; if of Cape of Good Hope
grapes, common proof; Vevay yielded 1-5th; the best cider 1-10th;
so do the best Burgundy wine, and that of the border of the lake of
Geneva, in good years. The strongest of all the wines that I know
of, is that of the south of France and Spain, which yields 1-3d
brandy. The peculiar mode of vine cultivation at Vevay, Indiana, is
worthy of attention, being a combination of various European modes,
and American improvements adapted to the country. Some young men,
bred at Vevay, would be useful in other places. Mr. D. thinks the
blacks may be taught to cultivate vines." So runs and concludes the
letter from the judicious writer, at Vevay of the United States,
settled by persons from the original Vevay of Switzerland. It is
very instructive and would seem to prove, as so much of our country
continues in the wood and forest state, and with many undrained
swamps, making a humid atmosphere, and a moist soil. Vevay, in 38°
30', is not yet perfectly so favourable, as the vicinity of Glasgow,
in Kentucky, where a dry, hard soil, occasions the grape to be
freer from injury by moisture of the earth, and of the air. Glasgow
is about one degree and one half more southern than Vevay. These
indications are distinct, nice, clear, and strong in regard to the
vine climate of our country, at present and in prospect.
[19] Vevay, on the Ohio, is in 38° 30' N.
[20] Glasgow is in 37°.
In the hilly Spanish colonial country of North America, about the
29th degree of north latitude, south of the Rio bravo del Norte,
there is authentic evidence, in a report to the government, that
the vine grows well, though its culture was forbidden by the crown,
produces good crops of fine wine, and supplies the province and
its neighbours. That country being as far south as any part of the
Floridas, it is ascertained that, where this country has become, or
shall be made dry enough and cleared, the vine region runs to the
southern limits of the United States, even if we should maintain
our right to Louisiana _in extenso_, in consequence of the apparent
frustration of our offer _to limit ourselves by the Sabine_.
The most distinguished wine of Spain is the true and best _Xeres_,
or Sherry of the district around the city of _Xeres_ de la Frontera,
in Andalusia. The vineyards of that district are, in situations
corresponding in temperature with the most extreme southern parts of
East Florida and Louisiana. It is interesting to our inquiry, that
all the Portuguese European wines are produced in situations north
of Xeres, such as those called by us the Lisbon, the Careavella,
the red and the white Port, or Oporto. It is observable, also, that
the Malaga, or sweet and dry mountain wines of Spain, long highly
esteemed by medical men, those of Alicante and Catalonia, which
three kinds we principally import, and all the Spanish brandies
we consume, come from districts as far north as that of Xeres.
The wines of Castile, and other interior districts of Spain which
are consumed at home, and are not exported, are from places also
north of Xeres. We can have no reason to doubt, then, that, as our
country now is, and shall in future be cleared and drained, and if
ridges, hills, and mountain sides, with south exposures, shall be
carefully selected, the most southern of our states, territories,
and districts, will be as suitable for the vine, its wines, and
dried fruits, as the most proper and fruitful parts of the peninsula
of Spain and Portugal. The works of travellers, agriculturists,
and men of distinction in the arts and sciences, upon the subject
of the vine, and wines, and dried grapes of Spain and Portugal,
are therefore strongly recommended, by our best interests, to the
attention of our citizens, especially concerning the vineyards of
_Xeres_, St. Lucar, Malaga, and Oporto. The Portuguese send to us no
brandy; the Spaniards a little of that spirit which is not estimated
as good. It seems, from the excellence of the French _Cognac_
brandy, the best, and the farthest north of any denomination of
brandy which we know, that the extreme south is not the most
favourable for the delicacy, though it is for the quantity of that
spirit. The _Cette_ brandy of France is not liked here, but it has
been said that much Armagnac brandy is used in Paris. The celebrated
French chemist[21] of the grape and of distilled and fermented wine
spirits, was a native of Montpelier, and took very great pains to
improve the vine, and all its liquors, in that southern region.
_A Friend to the National Industry._
PHILADELPHIA, NOV. 1, 1819.
[21] _Chaptal_, whose writings on the subject should be in every
planter's hands, and in every agricultural and public library. The
title of Mr. Chaptal's work is "A Theoretical and Practical Treatise
on the culture of the Vine, with the art of preparing wine, brandy,
&c. By Chaptal, Parmentier, and Dasseux. 2 vols. octavo, Paris, A.
D. 1801." In French, Chaptal, P. and D. sur la culture de la Vigne,
&c. Paris, 1801, 2 tom. oct.
_A Wild Goose Chase._
At the early dawn of Thanksgiving day, Mr. Eliphalet Thayer, of
Dorcester, (Massachusetts,) took his gun and went to Neponset river
for the purpose of getting a shot at gulls. He saw seven wild
geese in the river, at which he fired, and hit the gander so as to
break his wing. The other geese immediately flew; but the call of
the gander brought them down again, so that he had the chance of
firing again, and killed the old goose, and one of the young; the
four others rose, but the wounded gander by his calls served as
a decoy, and they again alighted by him. The third shot crippled
another.--Mr. T. then took a boat, and from it killed two as they
rose to fly; and soon after shot the seventh. He returned home to
his breakfast, about nine o'clock, bringing his seven geese, which
weighed about eight pounds each, and produced him above 3 _lbs._ of
feather.
[_Salem Gazette._
_Imports of Wool into England._