Year: 1859

would import, cutting up and loOsening the tchOle


of the ground, into open bitches, like military de-


fences. The entire surface of the earth is to be


loosened up if possible and that is best performed


IN the following manner


Begin at one side Of the ground to be prepared


and lay off land the whole length about three
feet wide. Dig and throw the dirt out carefully


from the side of the proposed vineyard, until you


have clean ditch, at least Is to 20 inches deep,
and II two feet the better. Lay off then another


land by the side of the first and of the same width
Dig it out, throwing all the dirt into the first


ditch until your second is completed to the


same depth. Ditch No. | will then contain the


soil taken from ditch No. 2 in an inverted form


and will be slightly raised Lay off another land


in the way, dig and throw the soil into ditch
No 2, and so on until you 90 over the whole


ground. Your last ditch will of course be open,


which you may leave so or fill as you please. The


dirt from your beginning ditch can be scattered


over the bed. That is trenching, and decidedly


the most perfect mode of preparing either vine


yard or garden. No one should be satisfied with


any less efectual mode, if this be at all possible
| Ii seems slow, and is more expensive, but in the


end it pays better. One hand beginning now will


trench one acre before spring, which acre will be
increased thereby threefold in value. L omitted


saying that hill side should be selected if you


have it, and a friable calcareous soil, if mixed


with gravel the better.


During the winter the slips or one year old
!


not more than q feet by apart, leaving the top


eye just level with the surface of the ground, and


slightly covered with light earth to prevent being
| killed by the sun. Two slips should be set in


each hole to allow for one failing, If both grow,


one may be removed next spring for replanting


missing spots. If roots are used the top should
! be trimmed away to one or two good eyes The
proper time for planting is after the spring has


fairly opened, say from the middle of April to the
middle of May The first years cultivation is on
| ly to keep them free of weeds No trimming,


training OF stalking will be needed it will be hard
if the beginner does not learn in the next twelve
months how to proceed.


| The preparation Of the ground let me repeat, is
| of the highest Importance. You cannot have q
vineyard without it, any more than you can have
house without foundation. If you wish to
throw away your vines, and what little trouble
you do take, let your ground alone until spring
snatch a little time from your farm garden
dig hole in the hard ground where you want
your vine to be, just big enough to get it in, and
g let it rip" After few years, folks will hear
you talking that vines do no good in this country.
Then again we find extracted from paper pub
lished at Greenville something about vineyards in
South Carolina


For the first time in my life saw regular wine
press. You are aware that wine is only the juice
of the grape expressed, and allowed to ferment,
when it is drawn off and put into casks for year
or So and then bottled. 1t should receive no al
cohol. l tasted, at Mr.. de Caradeuc's and DR..
McDonalds, delightful Claret, excellent, still
Champagne, and delicious Madeira wine; also
very fine brandy. These gentlemen may be said 10
be the pioneers of vineyards in South Carolina,
and rendering mucl essential service to the
State. They make some seven or eight hundred
dollars to the acre; and they are doing this
lands which twenty years ago no one would pay
taxes on.


Our rice planters do not clear one hundred dol
lars to the acre lands that worth from
hundred to two hundred dollars per acre, while
they are realizing six or seven hundred dollars.
Their places perfectly healthy for whites and
blacks while the rice lands are healthy for neither.
The grape is, generally speaking, pretty sure
crop DIR. Mcdonald has some thirty or forty acres
in vineyard, and Mr.. de Caradeuc sixteen or eight
cen. There have been others in South Carolina
who long ago attempted the culture of the grape.
Mr. Herbemont, Mr.. GuigniArd, Mr.. Maverick,
and others, all of whom failed The stumbling
block to those who first made the attempt to raise
wine, was the cultivation of the foreign grapes.
1t is reduced to a certainty that they will not
do, but that native grapes are emlnently sue
cessful. Those which DR.. Mcdonald and Mr.. 4.
de Caradeuc plant the Warren, the Isabella
and the Catawba. The Warren produces the best
Madeira, wine resembling 1t In character; and it
is the vine which these experienced gentlemen pre-
fer. They also plant largely Of the Isabella and
the Catawba. These are all native, and no doubt
will do well over a great portion four State; and
it is opinion these and also the Scuppernong
will do well in Greenyille District, and we think
that the time is not very distant when we will see
a great portion of our hillsides covered with vine
yards making sixty thousand dollars to the hun
dred acres or six hundred dollars to the acre, which
is only moderate estimate, according to the cal
culations of those who are realizing that, and a
good deal more on lands much thinner than
poorest mountain ridges. The best location for a
vineyard is a hillside fronting the East, so to
have it protected from the evening sun. The ap-
proved distance Of planting the vines Is In rows of
eight feet in width and four feet apart in the rows
The grape produces from two to four hundred gal
Ions of wine to the acre.


Major Bausket has just returned from a trip up
the Mississippi river as high as Cincinnati, who
gave glowing and graphic description of their
vineyards. He says every acre that is planted in
the approved vines, is valued at one thousand dol
lars per acre. Mr.. y. Longworth, of Cincinnati,
who has not only built a wide reputation, but
mammoth estate by his vineyards, has done 1t most
ly by his Catawba grape. Thirty years OF his life
have been devoted the culture of the grape, and
for fifteen years he tried the foreign varieties,
which be failed, as the rest did who tried them,
and sunk one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.
He then turned his attention to the native grapes
of the country, and in the space of sixteen years
has not only retrieved his losses but has amassed
seven UT eight millions of dollars. His taxes the
last year amounted to eighty-hve thousand dollars.
W hat golden haryests must he not reap from his
still and sparkling Catawba! We have frequently
drank il, and so have you. 1t is a delightful
Champagne, selling at two dollars bottle, or from
six to eight dollars gallon. We asked the Major I
whot he thought of the Crane culture His an