482 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



The vineyards near Bordeaux, which produce the highly prized clarets, enjoy 

 a high summer mean of 71°, and two hot months of 73.1°, July and August, 

 and a September of 67^ Fahrenheit. The mean of June is above the 

 minimum of G6.2°, being nearly 70°. These are circumstances very favorable 

 to the production of superior wine. 



The Avincs of Languedoc, Provence, and Roussillon, in the southeastern part 

 of France, are remarkable for fulness of body, but they want the fine odor or 

 lx)uquet of the wines of the Rhine. Their summer temperature is the highest 

 enjoyed by any districts of France — that at Marseilles exhibiting a summer 

 mean of 73°, while July reaches nearly to 76°, and August to 72°. 



Lisbon, Cadiz, Madeira, and Naples enjoy a very high measure of summer 

 licat and a hot August, the most favorable for the development of saccharine 

 matter, and the wines of the adjoining districts are celebrated the world over. 



In the most northern point of the district where the grape is grown, as at 

 Koenigsberg, it ripens only in warm summers, and is deficient in sugar, con- 

 taining only a glutinous muco-saccharine matter; while in the southern regions 

 the sugar is actually crystallized, and the grape is devoid of those acids which 

 are requisite in order that the wine may possess flavor and those other qualities 

 which distinguish wine from a mixture of syrup and alcohol. These extreme 

 limits of the wine region thus ofifer extreme conditions of the product dependent 

 almost solely upon the relative degrees of summer heat or the temperature of 

 July or August. 



THE SELECTION OF VARIETIES AND THEIR ADAPTATION TO THEIR RE- 

 SPECTIVE DISTRICTS. 



In the wine countries of Europe the utmost regard is paid to the proper 

 selection of varieties adapted to the respective districts, yet with all their art 

 and long experience the years of failure outnumber those of success. On the 

 Rhine, the Little Riessliug (Der Kleine RiesshngJ Vitis vinifera pusilJa, of 

 Babo and Metzger, is generally cultivated. This variety produces the famous 

 Johanuisberger, as well as many kinds of wine much inferior. The vineyard 

 of Prince Metternich, to whom the Johannisberg belongs, is protected by the 

 castle wall and a stone wall ten feet high, which occupied ten years in build- 

 ing. This greatly promotes the steady progress towards maturity by secur- 

 ing a quiescent state of the air, which is known to be extremely beneficial. 

 The wine of Lugisland and the Liebfrauenmilch owe their superiority over 

 that of the neighboring \aneyard to the protection afforded by the town wall 

 of "Worms. The advantages of protection against agitation of the air are well 

 understood in the Rheingau, or the "Rhine country," a valley of Nassau, cel- 

 ebrated for its rich vineyards, and the belts of vineyards which clothe the 

 height of Hockheim produce very different wines, according to their position. 

 One morgen, about one acre, close to the bed of the river Main, brings in the 

 market two thousand florins ; a higher morgen brings one thousand florins, 

 and one at the summit only five hundred. The difference between Leistcn- 

 wein and Steiuwein, both the produce of the banks of the Main, is explained 

 by the fact that different kinds of grapes are gi'own in the two vineyards ; but 

 why these two wines should differ from all others in the district has not been 

 satisfactorily ascertained. 



While we would not advise a close imitation of many practices common in 

 Germany and France, such as laborious and expensive terracing the precipi- 

 tous heights of rocky steeps and planting vines in baskets holding the earth 

 upon ledges among the rocks, as we have seen in many instances along the 

 Rhine, nor loading the backs of women with baskets of manure with which to 

 climb the hills called the Cote d'or, in Burgundy, as has been our painful lot 

 to witness a common practice, we may yet learn much from the centuries of 



