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Letter to Edward Stabler on Wine-Making. September 9, 1829 Edward Stabler (1794–1883), the recipient of this letter, was a Quaker agriculturalist and postmaster at Sandy Spring, Maryland. Inventor of a seed drill and a corn-husking mechanism , he stood at the forefront of the movement to apply scientific technology to agriculture . Later he would become the most skilled seal-maker in the mid-Atlantic states, creating the seals of both houses of Congress, the State Department, the Post Office, Supreme Court, Treasury Department, and virtually every other branch of the U.S. government. He owned Harewood, a plantation in Montgomery County, Maryland. Like Herbemont, Stabler had an abiding concern about soil exhaustion and published “Renovation of Worn-Out Lands,” the first-prize essay in the 1848 contest held by the American Farmer and Spirit of the Agricultural Journals of the Day.1 Published in American Farmer 11, no. 30 (October 9, 1829). Columbia, S. C. Sept. 9, 1829 edward stabler, jr. Respected Friend,—I am obliged to Mr. Allen Jones Davie,2 for procuring me the pleasure of your correspondence; for I make no secret of my being an enthusiast in the culture of the vine. I should have answered sooner your letter which I received about a week since, but I was much engaged in gathering the last of my grapes (the Bland Madeira or Rose grape) for wine and raisins. The grape you call “Perfume grape”3 I have never seen; but I got two cuttings of it last spring, which I grafted, and they have grown so well that I have very little doubt I shall see the fruit next year. If it be desirable I can send you one or two cuttings of it next winter with others . Although the name by which you call it may be a very good and appropriate 1. Vol. 4, no. 4 (October 1848), 97–104. 2. Major Allen Jones Davie (b. 1793), planter at New Hope Plantation, Halifax, North Carolina, where he maintained Sir Archy, the famed quarter horse, at stud. 3. “The vine grows on a small island of the Roanoke. . . . Its colour is purple, about one third larger than the common grape of the woods, slightly elongated. . . . In its flavour it is unrivalled, and when eaten diffuses a most grateful perfume.” Prince, A Treatise on the Vine, 211. published letters 162 one, I have called it, “General Jones,” or which is better “Allen Jones,” which is the name of Mr. Davie’s grand father, who first noticed this grape. This name suits the better, that it is also the first name of Mr. D. who is now bringing it to notice. I hope it may prove as valuable as Mr. D. anticipates. The choice vine to which Mr. D. alludes , may be the native one which I call “Arena,”4 from its being abundant in our sand-hills, or one (origin not known) called “Lenoir,” from the person of this name who first cultivated it near Statesburg in this state. This is a very superior grape not subject to rotting. It makes an excellent red wine. Or it may be my Madeira, which, if it were not liable to rot, I should be tempted to call the most valuable grape in this country. I once made very delicious wine from the Arena; the second trial did not succeed so well, from causes too long to give here, and I have now about ten gallons made last week, which I hope may be as good as the first. From one single vine of Madeira, I have made last week about twenty-five gallons. It is, however, a very provoking grape, for it rotted so much this summer, that instead of 1000 or 1200 gallons I had fair reason to hope I should make, I only made about 125. The wine it makes, and which I call “Palmyra,” from the name of my farm where my principal vineyard is, resembles the kind of Madeira called the “Juice of the grape,” which is Madeira without any addition of brandy.5 Several of my friends, too partial, no doubt, have paid it the same compliment as your friends paid to yours, viz: that it is the best American wine they have ever tasted. Many prefer it to Madeira of very good quality. I have always sold it at three or four months old, at $2, per gallon. I never put any brandy in it at all, as I think...

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