36 INTRODUCTION. 



happily exempt, by a genial climate, as the late- 

 ness of the season at which with us the vine un- 

 folds its blossom to the vernal sun, is a guarantee 

 from the first; the latter being of such rare oc- 

 currence among us as scarcely deserving to be 

 considered among the objections to the cultiva- 

 tion. 



Now, apart from these sources of drawback, 

 the Swiss vine dresser considers his crop a mini- 

 mum, when the Pose of land produces but three 

 chars of wine, and the vintage of La Vaux has 

 been known in a favourable season to yield to 

 the proprietor the surprising return of eight chars 

 of pure wine to the Pose. 



This, to be sure, is an extraordinary product, 

 occurring probably but once in seven or eight 

 seasons. Let us suppose, however, in the esti- 

 mate, a calculation justified, I think, by the facts 

 as they exist, and assume as the medium that the 

 Pose of land produced an average of five chars of 

 wine. 



The land measure of the Canton de Vaud is 

 decimal, the foot being ten inches, and the Pose 

 Vaudois forty thousand square feet. By a re- 

 duction of the foot Vaudoise to the measure of 

 Pennsylvania, it results that the Pose of that 

 Canton contains 33,333 and a fraction square feet 

 of land, our measure. The char of Vaud, like 

 the pound sterling of England, is imaginary, con- 

 taining four hundred Pots, the Pot of the Can- 

 ton being about equal to two bottles, as the 

 wine bottle is rated in America. 



On this estimate, therefore, it appears that the 

 cultivator of that Canton derives from his vine- 



