NATURAL 
wise; do not ripen till the end of 
September ; and, were it not for the 
fine long autumns peculiar to Crim 
Tartary, no good wine could be 
produced in that country. When, 
however, the plant germinates at 
an advanced period of the spring, itis 
attended with this advantage, that 
the shoots are never injured by the 
late frosts, which frequently occur 
in the vicinity of those rivers. Here 
the vintage is generally completed 
before it begins in the dales of Su- 
dagh and Koos, where it usually 
- takes place on the first of October, 
as, under the government of the 
khans, the third day of that month 
was the time formerly fixed by law, 
for commencing the vintage. 
Some Tartars are acquainted with 
a mode of engraftiag the vine terin- 
ed ashlama. For this purpose, 
young layers, or stems not exceed- 
ing two inches in thickness, are se- 
Jected and stripped for the length of 
aspan beneath the uppermost knots, 
where they are sawn off, and the 
surface is smoothed with a knife: 
the stem is afterwards slit, and the 
cleft kept open by means of a 
wooden wedge. ‘Two grafts, from 
eight to ten inches long, are next 
cut on both sides, for the length of 
an inch and a half, into a cuneiform 
shape, immediately below a knot, 
and are inserted in the cleft, so that 
the grafts cross each other on the 
external edge, where their bark 
- comes into mutual] contact. The 
stump is then tied with strong 
_ pack-thread ; a piece of bark from 
the vine that has been cut is laid 
closely on the incision; a handful 
of dried leaves is now pressed upon 
it, and some moistened earth is 
spread over these in a similar man- 
ner, so as to cover two or three 
knots with mould, and to leave the 
Voz. XLY. 
HISTORY. 
817 
same number above its surface ; 
weeping vines only, or such as are 
in full sap, are selected for grafting, 
Fifteen days after, when the buds 
begin to shoot, a full quart of wa- 
ter must be poured, eyery third day, 
over each stem, into a hole made 
for that purpose, till about the sea- 
son when barley becomes ripe. The 
grafts, in general, shoot forth so 
vigorously in the first year, that, in 
the following spring, they will afford 
layers and yield fruit: thus excel- 
Jent varieties of the vine, (not yet 
introduced into Crim Tartary), 
could be readily propagated, aad 
bad stocks be improyed. One man 
may engraft from fifty to sixty stems 
in the course ofa day. 
The vineyards occurring in the 
vallies, most favourable to this cul- 
ture, such as those of Sudagh and 
Koos, are planted with several in- 
termixed sorts of vines, which most- 
ly produce white grapes; because 
these, probably, yield here a much 
stronger wine, and succeed better 
than the red sort. There is only one 
small spot in every Tartar vineyard 
containing some tall stems which 
bear read and white grapes; in se- 
veral of them we observed a similar 
piece of ground, planted with vines, 
producing black fruit. 
The most destructive enemy to 
the vine, in*Crim-Tartary, is a 
small kind of caterpillar, peculiar 
to that country: as soon as the 
buds begin to open in the spring, it 
eats its way, especially into the 
fruit buds, and devours the germ of 
the grape. Two or three of these 
small worms, creeping from one 
germ to another, are sufficient to 
injure a whole vine in such a man- 
ner, that it bears no fruit, and pro- 
duces not a single regular shoot 
during the succeeding year. I have 
3 secm 
