INTRODUCTION. 37 



yard, an annual average of four thousand bottles 

 of wine to the Pose of land. The price at which 

 this wine is taxed by the municipality of each 

 commune, varies with the concurrent circumstan- 

 ces, and is such as has but little influence, in ge- 

 neral, on the actual sales of the vintage. The 

 object of the official tariff, is to establish between 

 the vigneron and the proprietor the price to be 

 paid as the compensation of the services of the 

 former, who though labouring in the vineyard 

 for a stipulated proportion of the vintage, is paid 

 in money the amount of his dues from the land 

 holder, who, by the municipal law, is compelled 

 to take on himself, the trouble and risque of dis- 

 posing of the wines. This is a measure absolute- 

 ly necessary, from the poverty and improvidence 

 of that class of the community, constituting the 

 largerportion ofthe vigneronsofthatcountry. Ge- 

 nerally, during the summer, they draw, from time 

 to time, from the proprietor, as muchTor theirdaily 

 support as amounts to their full proportion of the 

 vintage. I have known in the Canton of Vaud, 

 as a consequence of three successive unpropitious 

 seasons, the poor vigneron deeply embarrassed by 

 the necessary advances made by his proprietor, 

 and which in an unproductive vintage has great- 

 ly exceeded the amount of his proportion, as af- 

 fixed by the municipal tariff. Such misfortune, 

 occurring for two or three successive seasons, ac- 

 cumulate on the vine dresser a long list of arrears, 

 involving him in difficulties from which a long 

 life of toil and self-denial can hardly extricate 

 him. 



But in that country, property does not ex- 

 D 



