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In fact, the grape-growing industry on the banks of the Ohio, although commenced at different points with great promise, by French, Swiss, Germans, and Americans alike, has not realized their expectations. The Ohio has proved to be unlike the Rhine in this respect. In the long run, the vine in America appears to fare better in a more northern latitude.
Besides our unusual privilege of grape-growing in the open air, our little estate boasted a magnificent beurré pear tree, a small arbor of intertwined and peculiarly fine filbert and cobnut trees, and some capital greengage and apple trees; among the latter, a remarkably large and productive Ribstone pippin.
Thenceforward, for a century and a half, the progress of grape-growing continued without interruption; every generation poured forth new capital to enlarge the inheritance of vineyards already grown and to plant new ones. As the crop increased, the effort was redoubled to widen the sale, to entice a greater number of people to drink, to put the Italian wines by the side of the Greek.
I would save them from the discouragement and bitter losses which I have experienced, when it was out of my power to prevent it. They can prevent it, for the grape-growing of to-day is no longer the same uncertain occupation it was ten years ago. We of to-day have our choice of varieties not subject to disease; let us make it judiciously, and we may be sure of a paying crop every year.
Grape-growing is, perhaps, more than any other branch of horticulture or pomology, dependent upon soil, location and climate, and it will not do to dictate to the inhabitants of a country, in which the "extremes meet," that they should all plant one variety.
He now entered systematically upon grape-growing. He established a large vineyard upon a hillside sloping down to the river, about four miles above the city, and employed German laborers, whose knowledge of vine-dressing, acquired in the Fatherland, made them the best workmen he could have.
These are matters in which any beginner can obtain practical advice from the Queensland Agricultural Department, as the Government of Queensland, recognising the importance of fruit-growing, grape-growing, and general agriculture to the State, have devoted considerable sums of money to the establishment of experiment farms, orchards, and vineyards in different parts of the State.
Then, grape-growing, with the varieties then in cultivation, was a problem to be solved; now, with the varieties we have proved, it is a certainty that it is one of the most profitable branches of horticulture, paying thousands of dollars to the acre every year. Then, wine went begging at a dollar a gallon; now it sells as fast as made at from two dollars to six dollars a gallon.
They are so formidable that they threaten to destroy some varieties altogether; and the Catawba, once the glory and pride of the Ohio vineyards, has for the last fifteen years suffered so much from them, that many of the grape-growers who are too narrow-minded to try anything else are about giving up grape-growing in despair.
Then, grape-growing was confined to only a few small settlements; now there is not a State in the Union, from Maine to California, but has its vineyards; and especially our Western States have entered upon a race which shall excel the other in the good work. Our brethren in Illinois bid fair to outdo us, and vineyards spring up as if by magic, even on the prairies.
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