 wine making; to inquire of intelligent proprietors the results of their operations and investments; to mix with the vine dressers in the several divisions of labour; and to compare with the agriculture of our coun- try the expenses and returns of the land holder and farmer, under their peculiar circumstances and different cultivation. The result is, a deci- ded conviction of the profits of vine growing, and a settled belief, that by adopting the system oi Swiss cultivation, we shall in time succeed in the difficult task of acclimating to our country, the foreign vine. There is perhaps no vine country of Europe — certainly none which I have seen — where the cultivation of the Grape has attain- ed so great a perfection, and where the results ol the vintage are so mediocre; where the vine- IV PREFACE. yard blooms in vernal luxuriancy, the summer cheers with flattering hopes, and a treacherous autumn so illy redeems the deceptive promises of the seasons. -^ With few exceptions, I consider the wines of Switzerland to be the most inferior productions of the European Vine; and it is due to the skill and perseverance of the Swiss proprietor, and to the unwearied industry of the vigneron of the Cantons, that the sterile hills of their romantic country have attained their present value, and a culture formerly unknown, arrived at such per- fection as to support the dense population with which the. country teems. Switzerland has but little commerce, and pro- duces nothing to exchange for foreign luxuries. The government of the Cantons, aware of the deep stake at issue, and sensible of the importance of extending to this cultivation a fostering protec- tion, has given to the members of it every possi- ble facility at their command. Patriotic and public spirited individuals have associated in agri- cultural societies, inviting to their membership such practical vine-dressers, as can promote the objects of the cultivation, and improve by their writings, their experience, and their coun- sel, the system of Swiss vine-dressing; awarding to such as require it, pecuniary aid, and to others of more propitious circumstances, honorary testi- monials, where skill and experiment have thrown new light on the subject, and improved the condi- tion of the Swiss vine-dresser. The Canton of Geneva has done much for the cultivation, by encouraging such societies, and PREFACE. V eliciting important information from practical vine growers. Among the best of these may be cited the little Manual of Mr. Brun Chappuis, adopted and recommended by the Agricultural Society of Geneva, and that of Mr. Reymondin. The first of these is a treasure to the vine grower. 'Tis a breviary of practical instructions on the duties of the vineyard, and contains such plain and concise directions, as can scarcely fail, if pro- perly attended to, of resulting in the establishment of a successful vineyard. This little pamphlet — now > out of print — was difficult of access,; but through the influence of my friend Mr. Charles do Bonstetten, of Geneva and Valeyres, I procured it — and having transla- ted, have annexed it to this work. One chap- ter of Mr. Reymondin I have also translated, that the agriculturalist may compare in part the sys- tem of each. Though containing a fund of prac- tical instruction, his work is encumbered with much irrelevant matter. In giving the chapter here annexed, I have husked the chestnut, retain- ing the kernel, and rejecting the useless burr. Wine making is better understood in France than in Switzerland. Many valuable works have been written on the subject by the French masters. The treatise of Chaptal is pre-eminent, and such as was to be expected from the pen of that distin- guished chemist. It is however too elaborate for our purpose, and fit only for the advanced state of wine making. The little work of Mr. Bulos is an epitome, pre- sentins: a condensed view of practical wine mak- ing, and is of the same character with the Man- VI PREFACE. ual of Brun Chappuis. I have translated it care- fully and annexed it also to this volume. Both deserve the attention of the agricultural commu- nity; and if, in following the directions they give, the American farmer shall succeed in domestica- ting among us the foreign vine, subduing by cul- tivation the savage character of the native plant, there is reason to believe that an ample reward will await on the experiment. To the authorities of our country, whether State or Federal, may it not in this age of internal im- provement be worth theinquiry,why thedifferent governments of Europe, both absolute and liberal, have so long considered the Vine an object of national protection, and whether the introduc- tion of it amongst ourselves as a staple of agri- culture, be not deserving the formal and serious attention of legislative enactment. Europe fears it and I have often heard the sentiment expressed among political economists, that it is incumbent on them to make a change, and to adopt some means to counteract a loss of the American market as an outlet for their wines. Sooner or later they anticipate such a change; and the only surprize among them is, that it has not yet arrived. Among the vine growing countries of Italy, the grand duchy of Tuscany is unquestionably the most prosperous. Though her government is absolute, a just and forbearing prince sways the sceptre of the Medici, and Tuscany blooms under the civil code of the Leopolds. The chief source of the wealth of this State is in her agriculture. The most productive of her cultivations are, the olive, the silk worm, the vine and the Leghorn PREFACE. Vii straw. The first of these may be probably culti- vated to advantage in Georgia and the Floridas. The silk worm is already in promising favour among'us, and little doubt, I believe, is enter- tained of the ultimate success of this branch of industry. From the Leghorn straw we have less perhaps to hope, as the labour required in the manufacture of the article is too heavy a compo- nent, to promise an advantageous result in our sparse population. It is a cultivation moreover which has resisted the efforts of France, and foil- ed the skill of her judicious agriculturalists. The patrimony of St. Peter haslong abandoned the hope of introducing it into the States of the Church, as it is a plant, it would seem, peculiar to the Ap- penines. But the vine isfoutid through most of the countries of Europe, from the thirty-sixth to the fiftieth degree of latitude, in the various grades and qualities springing from their va- rious climates, soils, exposures, and positions, affording the flattering expectations that the paral- lel advantages of our own country will even- tually produce their similar results, both as to the plant and the vintage. We have greater reasons to indulge in such hopes than they who have preceded us, as we have the benefit of their skill and experience, their observations and writings. Let us, there- fore, at least make the experiment, in the confi- dence that though gathered into the service at the eleventh hour, the Lord of the vineyard will smile on the work, and crown our efforts with the like rewards, so liberally extended to those who have borne the heat and burden of the day. INTRODUCTION. In the wide range of political economy, there is perhaps no subject exciting so deep an interest as the unexampled prosperity of the United States. The theory of self-government, so ob- noxious to the advocates of legitimate rule, seems destined to shake to its centre the established dynasty of Europe, where systems, which for centuries have mingled with every relation be- tween the ruler and the governed, seem fading before a Liberty that at no distant day shall es- tablish her fane on the ruins of the sceptre and the throne. The experience of fifty years has confirmed in the history of the Republic the predictions of the warmest friends of freedom, which, like the types and shadows of ancient prophecy, year after year unfolds to view ; as in the civil and political institutions of the country, we see the happiest accomplishment of the promised bless- ings. Religion, the corner stone of the social fabric, unfettered by protecting legislation, dispenses around us the blessings which attend in her train; B 14 INTRODUCTION. and a perfect security of liberty and possessions springs from her just and salutary laws. Whilst the decayed and exhausted monarchies of the old world are plunged in embarrassment and debt — taxing, by every indirection, an indus- trious and oppressed population, circumscri- bing their liberties, and drawing from the sweat of their brows the means which minister to the vices of pageantry, it is reserved to these States to exhibit to the world the anomalous spectacle of a treasury embarrassed in its opera- tions from excess of revenue, and a people delv- ing amid the mysteries of finance, — not to devise the ways and means of supplying a defi- cient income, but to shape their course with the swelling tide of national prosperity, and so to adapt under auspicious circumstances their sys- tem of import, as to lessen the requirements of government on the resources of the nation, with- out a formal surrender of the right inherent to the social compact, to call on the citizen in the hour of emergency, for his just and equitable pro- portion of