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the other. The only exceptions were a few patches of limestone and slate 
The basalt soil is esteemed richer than the sandstone, and is often hauled on to 
the other to enrich it. For instance, the vine-dressers of Durkheim actually 
manure their thin, poor, gravelly land with tens of thousands of yards of earth, 
brought from the neighboring town of Deidesheim, and yet the Durkheim wine 
is quite superior to that of their neighbors. All this was quite different from 
anything we noticed in France; theeet calcareous rocks seem to underlie every- 
where, vor could we learn of any wine of high repute in France, that derived its 
quality from sandstone or basalt. The vine husbandry of the Swiss and Germans 
is of the first order. Nowhere do you see in their vineyards the straggling 
appearance so common in those of France, (the effect of frequent layering ;) 
but the lins were always beautifully true and even. Although the intervals or 
rows werewide enough for the plough to pass, nearly all the cultivation was 
done by hand, and done’most thoroughly, too In France, as in America, they 
stir the ground two or three times during the season. In the Rhinegan it is 
done four times; but about Forst Deidesheim and Durkheim they do it as 
often as every two or three weeks from the beginning to the end of the season. 
It is in the above neighborhood that basaltic earth is applied as a manure, as is 
also clay, to make the ground more retentive of manure; and tkis they do to 
such an extent that old vine fields are seen which have been raised visibly above 
the level of the others adjoining them. 
NOTE.—Some years since the vineyard of F. 'T. Buhl, of Deidesheim, produced wine on 
the natural soil of a very inferior quality, selling at fifty centimes the titre, at a very great 
expense. The whole vineyard was covered to the depth of three feet by volcanic or basalti¢ 
earth brought from a distance of several miles. The experiment at the time was thought to 
be a very hazardous one, but the enhanced value of the wines after the addition proved 
that the owner was wiser than his neighbors. 
The expenditure of labor in a year on an acre of those fields amounts to about 
one hundred and forty days’ work. In the Pflaz, it is usual to train upon hori- 
zontal Jaths or lines of wire running fifteen inches above the ground, very much 
as is done in Medoc, only that where wire is used a second line is stretched 
above the other. If the plan is good in Medoc and the Pflaz, it is hard to see 
why it would not be good everywhere, especially in countries so cold as Ger- 
many and the northern part of the United States. Indeed, Mr. Guyot, to whose 
book we have already referred, argues strongly in favor of everywhere adopt- 
ing the method of training the fruit-bearing cane horizontal with the ground 
and very close to it. We ought, however, to note here, that the fields where this 
mede was more particularly noticed, or connected with, good results, were in 
gravelly deposits of nearly level surface. Manure is freely used in Germany, 
much more so than in France, and is prepared and applied with much care and 
system. Cow manure, largely composted with straw, is the only kind thought 
fit to manure vines. They sprinkle the heaps almost daily to keep them moist 
and allow the mass to rot, at least twelve months before being used. It is 
applied every three years. As to quantity, it is certain that some soil, like the 
poor and unretentive gravel beds of the Pflaz, should receive more than those 
of the neighboring slopes, and that the calcareous earths of France need less 
than the sandstone and the basaltic earths of the Rhine valley. 
Guyot, arguing strongly in favor of manure, recommends the French culti- 
vator to put on at intervals of three years a quantity of manure that will 
be equivaleut in weight to that of the fruit he has taken off at vintage, while 
Mr. Herzmansky, the steward at Johannesberg, who tills some 50 acres of 
vines, keeps about 40 very large cows in his stables. But will not manuring 
hurt the quality of the wine ? 
Tn our former report we say that this is an open question as yet, and so it is 
in France, and Mr. Guyot treats it as such in arguing upon it. Of course 
none will doubt that were a vineyard to be treated in this respect, as we treat 
