mixed drinks.
97
catawba, made originally by Nicholas Longwortb of
Cincinnati, are produced in great quantities. New-
York,Missouri,Illinois and Pennsylvania are also large
wine-producing States. Wines of inferior quality are
made in a small way in all the States. In the Eastern
and Middle States the Catawba and Ives Seedling are
mostly grown, while in the South the Virginia seedling
and Scuppernog grapes are the favorites,and those used
for wine resemble the grapes of Germany and France,
containing more acid and -flavor. Those grown on the
Pacific Coast are of a milder and sweeter character like
those of Spain. Mildew, blight and grape rot have
interfered with grape culture in some localities, hut
Philloxera is not so had as in France.
True Americans always take pride in anything
that is pui-ely and simply American. While drinking
claret and certain other wines,unless we are fairly good
judges, we do not know whether they are foreign or
domestic. But catawba wine makes no pretenses to
foreign nativity. It is merely what it seems—a good,
palatable, invigorating American wine. Of course the
vine hearing the beautiful,luscious red fruit from which
this wine is made,came remotely from exotic plants,
hut it has gained characteristics of its own. It was
first cultivated along the shores of the great Catawba