The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-03-19
Increase of Grape culture.

We are glad to see signs of extending Vine
yards at numerous points on the Lower Ohio.
Our German citizens especially those from
the Banks of the Rhine, have passion for
the culture of the grape. We see small
vineyards are appearing upon the sides of
hills with a Southwestern exposure, along
the river in this, Spencer and Perry counties.
The quantity of wine that will be raised in
these counties In the course of four years
will form an important article of export
The largest quantities that will be raised,
will not be by the farmers, but by gardeners
and vine dressers, who combine some me-
chanical or other employment with the
healthful and profitable labors of the vine
yard. The cottage of almost every German
mechanic and coal miner about Troy, Tell
City, and Cannelton, we observe, is now
surrounded with the naked stakes, that are
to sustain the vines that will, in a few
months, embower it. Old paintings are be-
ing enlarged, and new ones being made
After the vines are once set, the labor of at
tending the vineyard is only enough for
healthful recreation for the miner and me-
chanic after his task in the mine and shop
for the day is Finished or to employ the
idle days when work is slack. We con-
versed with two French mechanics, who last
year, besides supporting themselves and
families by labor in their shop, cultivated,
in copartnership, an acre and half o.
grapes, from which they obtained nearly 400
gallons of wine; this year another plant
ing of an acre or more will come into bear
ing, and they are calculating upon pro-
duct of 800 gallons. The value of the wine
will be the earnings of hours that would be
mostly spent in idleness, with the usual
habits of shop men, and those who work for
daily wages. 4.a.ss
Our native wines are now the only ones
that it is safe to drink. The adulteration of
foreign wines and liquors has become so
universal that those who have any regard
touch nothing but what we see flowing from
our own presses. The following account of
small seaport in the South of France, shows
how grossly we are cheated: "a
In the little, active and hourishing seaport
of Cette, bordering on the Mediterranean,
the manufacture of all sorts of Wines from
"humble Port to imperial Tokay," is car
ried on most extensively, without the juice
of the grape. The imports to this busy mer-
camille community are inferior spirits, log
wood and Brazil-wood, which leave in the
form of choice French, Spanish, and Portu-
gese wines, with the aid of sugar, vinegar,
| and other chemical admixture. To the
merchants of Cette, it matters not that the
grape crep fails; or rather, it does matter
| for their wine rises in price, and as the fail
ure of the grape does not affect the price of
bad whisky, logwood, &C., &c, the increased
price of their wine il perfect windfall to
them. Inferior malt liquors. without hops, we
presume, also are in demand for the manu-
tacture of choice wines. Thus it is that the
whole world of ideal wine-bibbers are sys-
tenatically humbugged. The wonder is
that any man can ask friend to take glass
of wine with him without laughing in his
| face-so well does he know that what he
| calls "wine," from conventional usage, is a
palpable cheat.