The object of these papers is to excite to objects of agriculture, manufacture, commerce, and consumption of the utmost importance to the prosperity of our country. The forms and niceties of literary composition will yield their claim to attention to the more solid substance of the pertinent information and suggestions.
In the course of the consideration of this subject, several letters from living friends to our prosperity have been brought together. The remainder of this paper will be appropriated to the publication of one of those letters, of very recent date, from a native of the United States, of the best opportunities, in Bordeaux, the emporium of that part of the kingdom of France which gives to us the largest quantities of the most esteemed wines and brandies which enter into our regular consumption. It here follows, in its own clear and instructive terms.
"I have been favoured by your letter of the 24th. Chaptal, sur la Culture de Vine, l'Abbe Rozier's memoire sur le mellieure maniere de faire et gouverner les Vins, and Jullien's Topographie de tout les Vignobles, are the authors the most in repute in France on the vine and on wine. The first and last can be had in Philadelphia; and if Rozier's memoir is not to be found, as it is an old book, you can doubtless find at your French book stores, his Dictionary of Agriculture, 5 vols. in 4to. which, under the head of Vine, will give you all the information you desire.
"The district which produces the best wine, about Bordeaux, is Medoc. That county is divided into upper and lower Medoc, lying between the Gironde and Garonne and the Bay of Biscay. It is much such a country, as to hill and dale, or general surface, as that between Philadelphia and Trenton, of a sandy, sandy-loam, and gravelly soil, with some few exceptions of small patches. About seven leagues from north to south, and three from east to west, of this district, is occupied with vineyards, which produce the best wine, whose expositions are from east to south.
"In this district, Lafitte, Chateau Margaux, Latour, Leoville, La Rose, Braune Mouton, and St. Julien, with various other qualities of Claret, are produced, which bring from $60 dollars the ton, of 4 hogsheads, (or 252 gallons,) to $600, according to the estimation they are held in. The vines in this district are not suffered to grow above three feet from the ground.
"Hautbriant is produced on a single estate of that name, lying in La Grave, about a league south of Bordeaux. The soil is sandy and gravelly; so much so that you would hardly suppose it capable of vegetation.
"The districts which produce Sauterne, Barsac, and Grave wines, lie from the skirts of the city south about four leagues, presenting much the same swell of surface as that part of New Jersey through which the mail runs between Trenton and Brunswick. The name of this district, (or, more properly speaking, the northern part of it,) Grave, denotes its soil Gravier—Gravel. I have seen hundreds of acres of vines in Grave, growing in pebbles, from the size of a bean and nutmeg to that of an egg, without the least vestige of earth, cracking under foot, and filling one's shoes. Of the white wines of Bordeaux, Sauterne, Barsac, and Corbonnieux are of the first quality; but there are many other growths which vie with them, and the ordinary qualities of these white wines are various. I have purchased good pleasant white wine at six dollars the cask of sixty-three gallons. The quantities sent to this country cost from $12 the cask to $40. Of the other wines you mention, I have no knowledge.
"It has been stated that two millions of acres are taken up in the cultivation of the vine, in France, producing, one year with another, five hogsheads of sixty-three gallons to the acre; which, at the moderate price of fifty francs, or ten dollars, the hogshead, gives one hundred millions of dollars. This produce is immense; and, what renders it still more valuable is, that it does not lessen the quantity of other necessary productions, such as wheat, &c.; for where the vine generally grows in France, nothing else will grow: such is the poverty of the soil generally employed for vines.
"They have the wild vine in France. I have seen large quantities of it near Bayonne, and round the foot of the Pyrenees, up to Pau: the inhabitants make beautiful hedges of it, and I have been assured by a distinguished naturalist, Mr. Pennieres, who is now in the Alabama territory, that some of the excellent grapes of France have been produced from the wild vine, after some years of careful cultivation. He is now engaged in inoculating our wild vines with those of France, from which he expects the most favourable results.
"I shall conclude these hasty observations by an extract from Rozier: