AND PORTO SANTO. HI 



the grapes yield no wine until the fourth year'. The stalks of the 

 arundo sagittata (the tops of which are good for feeding cattle), 

 are used in making frames for supporting the vines, in the 

 southern parts of the island, and the salix rubra for tying them 

 to this trellis-work. In the north part of the island the vines are 

 trained around the chestnut-trees, this firmer support being 

 necessary, as it is said, on account of the high winds prevaiUng 

 there ; but they generally neglect to cut away the branches which 

 prevent the sun from reaching the vine, and it evidently languishes 

 in the vegetable soil natural to the chestnut-tree. If a layer of 

 light siliceous soil, wliich the adjoining tufa would furnish, were 

 laid above the vegetable earth, both trees would flourish equally. 

 The vines give fruit as high as 2700 feet in Madeira, but no wine 

 can be made from it: the greatest height at which it is now 

 cultivated for this purpose, is in the valley of the Coural das 

 Freiras, which is 2080 feet above the sea. There is much dispute 

 as to the best moment for pruning the vines; some prefer Febru- 

 ary, others the middle of March ; it depends principally, however, 

 on their foresight as to the weather when the flowering takes 

 place, which is from six weeks to two months, after the pruning. 

 As to the treatment of the wines, I have remarked, that the 

 produce of one year must frequently be treated very differently from 

 that of another. When the grapes are green, the fermentation 

 must be checked ; when they are wet from unseasonable rains, it 

 must be assisted ; generally speaking, the riper the fruit, the more 

 difficult the fermentation. A very agreeable liqueur is made in 

 the island from the second pressure of the grape, (the first 

 being merely with the feet) into which an equal quantity of 

 brandy is immediately thrown, to stop the fermentation, and 



' Miller, in his Gardener's Dictionary, tells us, that in some parts of Italy, there are 

 vines which have been cultivated for 300 years ; and that a vine not more than a 

 century old, is there called young. 



