The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-10-18
wealthy viueyardists.

1t is curious commentary on "scien-
t:fic" grape culture, that while man is
poor he can usually grow good grapes
but as soon as he becomes rich he sue
ceeds no longer. Weknow one who had
pretty good success with his grapes,
along very steep hillside, aud then,
finding the "soil and climate good, in
vested several thousand dollars in ter
racing, manuring, and, subsoiling, &C.
cordiDg to the most perfect instructions
laid down in the books, and he has never
had a grape since. Heis quite sure the
"climate" has changed the past few
years, and that sit is no use to try to grow
grapes in that part of the country"
We may see the same obvious ''change
of climate" at Cincinnati, ST. Louis,
and other grape centres. Germans, who
come fresh from the Rhine, where the
labor of cultivation is too great for tne
men, and only women can be found 10
carry earth in wicker baskets up the
steep hillsides, to the little nests quar-
ried ont in the ridges for the grape TO
GROW in succeed remarkably we'll for
time. As they inhale the rich American
atmosphere, and find their breech bands
and pockets, in mutual sympathy ex-
handing comes withal desire to do
the thing right" From henceforth they
find they have an uphill task, while
their success correspondingly descends.
Bye and bye one reaches the top OF the
mountain, secs his fortune at the bottom,
and finds "his climate not adapted 10
grape culture"
Once in a while, however, we see one
whom success does not spoil. On the
railroad from Pittsburgh, to Cleveland,
perhaps twenty-five miles from Pitts
burgh, is n steep, rocky bluff, facing the
Ohio river, we see case in point. tbs
capped by an elegant mansion, of
somewhat castellated form. How any
one reached the top was Eot easily I'M
derstood, but doubtless some balloon
arrangement, simplitied by Yankee
genius, does that business Thoroughly
and well. Passing rapidly on the train,
we cannot, ofcourse, give more than ap-
proximate figures, but we should think
the hill was one hundred and fifty feet
high, and yet not more than one hun
dred feet back, in horizontal line, from
the railroad track. This will give an
idea of the steep activity Of this hill
side. This was the place for terraces,
narrow terraces, which could never be
delnged with water; and here were just
such terraces as would delight the eyes
of a genuine Rhinelander,-the surfaces
even of sloping so much that any but
genuine son of Faderland would wonder
how water could get in, even under the
heaviest rain storm, to say nothing OF
staying there after it did get in. Yet
here, on these bluffs, facing the sun,
where even a crop of corn would dry
out nine years out of ten, were vines
with promise of fruit which even a
look at would be enough to intoxicate
Bacchus, though well used to hard
drinking, as by all accounts he must
have been. This man is evidently rich,
but he could not do otherwise than he
did. 1t would have taken even his i'm
mense fortune to spoil that hill. mat
he has succeeded may, therefore, be no
thanks to his "intelligeuce." "Climate
and soil" is therefore all right for the
present; and we rather guess if he will
not be above the practices of the old
country German women, and carry up
little manure once in while, in little
wicker basket across his shoulders, his
"climate and soip will not change for
many years to come.