The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-02-23
CRAZE CULTURE.

CRAZE CULTURE
The adaptabnity Of grape culture to our
State and soil should recommend itself to
our people particularly at this time, when
| on all hands it is conceded that cotton must
be abandoned, and more ,.remuneratiye
article substituted. With this object we
| append the following:
| There are few if any European fruits that are
of such universal Importance to mankind as the
grape. Certainly there is no one that finds it's
way into commerce in snch q variety of FORMS
The vine Pitis rinfera, L.. his of no less value
| now than lit was four thousand years ago; on
the contrary, its uses have multiplied and its
Importance has consequently increased. 1t Is
true that our poets not given, of yOre,
| to sing tho g1ories of the juicy grape, for in
this which is sometimes called the degenerate
age, we do not cultivate the fruit purely for the
sake of fermenting its juice as our ancestors
did, nor is its produce exclusively confined to
the wealthy as it was even three hundred years
ago. The successful cultivation of the vine in
our day Affects all classes of the community. 1t
furnishes wine as luxury for the upper
classes, and is, alas, too seldom obtained as o
necessary for the poor. It yields grapes, black
and white, fresh from the hot house; and what
perhaps is moro important than either to our
poorer brethren, it supplies the welEknown
raisins and currants, without which Christmas
would lose much of its reality. Should any
disease ravage the raisin grounds of Valencia,
grounds of the Ionian Islands, with such terri
bic results as that which has recently carried
off SO many of our cattle, consequences
would be as universally felt, though of course
in a lesser degree. But the grape, like all other
plants, is liable to disease, both from therat--
tacks of microscopic fungi, and from other
causes, as the vineyards of the Continent have
occasionally shown ---='=-=s
The derivation of the Latin name of the
genus Tits, is from the Celtic g,ryd, the being
silent in the pronunciation. The Spanish ria,
n vGCn thxlx mol
point OF sound, while the French is rigne and
the English. rine.SThe cultivation and use Of
the grapes are of great interest, inasmuch as it
claims notice in an ANTIQUARIAN as well as in a
natural point of view. In all ages this fruit
has been held i'll the highest esteem. Whence
it originally came it is doubtful, althori-
ties ascribing it's origin to Northern India; but
1T has more probably been derived from Western
Asia and the South of the Caspian Sea. Hunl-
Doidt says, in his Geographic des Plantcs, that
!" the vine which we now cultivate does not be-
long to Europe. 1t grows wild on the coasts OF
the Caspian Sea, in America, and i'll Caramania.
From Asia it passed into Greece, and thence
into into sicily The Ph@niceans carried. it into the
banks of the Rhine"
The grape is certainly amongst the earliest OF
our cultivated fruits. If turn to Biblical
history we find very numerous references to the
vineyard, Indeed, with the sacred writer's the
vine appears to have been q tIvorite symbol of
things; and even the Saviour himself,
when addressing the disciples, drew a beautiful
the branches" These facts not only illustrate
the esteem in which, the vine was held, but also
the popularity and extent of its cultivation.
so early in the book of Genesis as the ninth
chapter we read that NOAH began to be an
>h,lsbandman and he planted a>vineyard"; and
as,a proof of the contemporaneous antiquity of
wine, we are told that he drank of the
produces The grape, indeed, is the first
fruit mentioned in Scripture after the
forbidden frnit. Passing on to the profaneJ
writer's find mention-of- vine in |
t.le Odyssey of HOMER, well as in the works |
OF Hippocrstes and Herodotus. When and how
1t was spread in the Countries where we now
find it, is a question very difficult to answer.
There is n tradition common amongst the Afri- |
cans that the great Bacchus himself was the
first to introduce it into their co6ptry and to |
teach others the mode of it's successful cultiva-
ton Nor is the precise date of its introduction
INTO England by any means certain. It has !
been inferred that the credit is due to the Ro- |
man period of British history; but it could not
according to Tacitus, have been brought till I
after the time of Agricola.