Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-06-03
Nyand0t County Republican,
Grape Culture in America.

wherever tney LOuCneQ Jne coast, or
however far they explored the inte-
rior, found the grape growing. Gil
gantic vines clambered over cliffs of
granite and ledges of limestone,
bore down with their weight great
trees of the primitive forests, fes-
tooned with beauty the borders of
rivers and creeks, and, before Euro
pean herds came to browse them
away, ramped down to the very
shores of the sea. A cargo of voy-
ayers approaching the coast of
North Carolina, while as yet more
than hundred miles off, were met,
as they told, with q perfume of vel
come so sweet and strong it envel-
oped and pervaded their ship as if
she were sailing among gardens.
1t was the breath of vine blossoms,
borne on western breezes from that
land Of the grape. AS long as the
forest Itself had stood it had been
the home of the vine, whose gener-
ations produced and reproduced
themselves within its shelter, wait
ing for man to come Three fami-
lies there were known to botany as
Wits labTusco, Vtis ostovi7is, and
Vits vulpaaa, otherwise named af-
ter the fox, the frost, and the bull,
they were mostly hard, thick skin
ned, and sour, for their energies
were expended in reproduction, to
the end that their species might be
preserved throgh the many dangers
that beset their wild condition Yet
from time to time they would fling
off luscious varieties seedlings of
chance. though fulfilling design; fit
for the use of man, yet needing the
fostering of his hand, because fine
and delicate, and perishing without
it. And thus those wild originals
of the vine will continue to do while
the forest stands; for the rude cha.,-
ges of our climate destroy the ten
der plants brought from Europe,
and hardy stock is needed that is
native to the soil. Seedlings of
chance and fomndlings of the woods
are our Herbemont, Lenoir, and
Norton's Virginia, members Of the
frost family; the Catawba, Concord,
and Delaware, with many more,
members of the fox family; and the
Scuppernong and others, of the bull.
These we know and have, and 9TH
ers we look and hope for. How
many as good or better than they
have perished in their bleak nur-
sery for want of adoption none can
guess.
But we have vines enough, and
they are good enough to grow wine
to satisfy the hemisphere, even
though another variety should never
be discovered. All needed is, that
we know how to place and how
to cultivate and preserve them; and
richly furnished as is the board Of
our national feast, the drink that
shall fill its now empty crystals will
be worthy of it. The same condi-
tons which produce good apples
and peaches can produce good
grapes. Diversity of soil and eli
mate will give diversity Of product,
warm sunbeams, clear skies, and a
dry atmosphere will insure sweet
ness and flavor in the fruit, and
richness, body, and bouquet IN the
wine. In most of our varieties there
is an excess of flavor to be teln-
pered down by cultivation Many
Of them are superabundant in sugar,
while others yield juice whose
color is SO deep that it too might be
deemed excessive, if it were possible
for wine to be too red And if the
musky flavor of the foxes is by
many is disliked, be it known that
the important family of frost grapes,
Vatas ostavilis, have none of it what
ever, but only such delicate bouquet
and SAVIOR as the most fastidious
European taste may accept. With
such materials we must be poor cul-
tivators indeed if we fail soon to
produce something better than what
Europeans now send for our drink
ing, and in time something equal to
what they keep for their own.
Though few or none of our grape
growers have yet planted III soils
poo- enough for growing fine wines,
and though for various reasons the
culture remains still in it's infancy,
there have already been some good
results obtained The ill-used and
much abused Catawba, whatever
may be thought of it as q still wine,
has, by virtue of its excess of tar
tartic acid, such an affinity, so to
speak, for sugar, that if, while vet
in the greenness of its first year, it
is properly compounded with sugar
and ice, summer drink is made Of
unequalled excellence. A cobbler
of new wine, grown in the valley of
the Ohio, or Missouri, where the
Catawba ripens almost to blackness,
drunk when the dog star RACES, lin
gers in memory for life. The ex-
lie from his native land, whom sum-
mer heats overtake, will long for it
even on the Rhine as Garonne,
whose borders supply no drink to
match it; nor can the sherberts of
the Orient or cliquot frappe make
him forget the cobbler that repaired
his soul in the Western bar-room.
For the same reason (its happy
mode of combining with sugar)
sparkling Catawba, properly made
and from choice selections of raw
material, IS fully equal to the aver
age quality of the Champagne we
import. The scuppernong, too, put