38 INTRODUCTION. 



change masters as with us, and the inheritance 

 of a good vineyard is considered the best pos- 

 session which a prudent father can transmit to his 

 children. Equally stable is the profession of the 

 vinedresser, who generally toils his life time in 

 the grounds cultivated by his fathers before him ; 

 and educated his son to the same walk of life, 

 from which he rarely dreams of departing. In 

 such circumstances an unfortunate vigneron is 

 sure to experience the sympathy of his proprie- 

 tor. They have passed the days of their child- 

 hood together, and an association of juvenile re- 

 collections establishes the happiest feelings be- 

 tween them. It is a rare occurrence to find a 

 Swiss proprietor pressing with undue rigor his 

 unfortunate vigneron. This is a feature of their 

 system of agriculture which will not bear on the 

 cultivation in America, as no such class of ope- 

 ratives exists among us. The vine will be in 

 the hands of the owner of the soil, and prosper 

 only under his personal care. 



Though the municipal tariff is general, it is 

 not in force throughout the whole of the Canton 

 of Vaud. The wines, for example, of La Vaux 

 are too valuable to be the subject of such inter- 

 ference, and the proprietor of that district usu- 

 ally employs his vigneron at a stipulated pecu- 

 niary price. The tariff of the neighbouring 

 communes has, nevertheless, an important in- 

 fluence on the profits of his vintage, as in a season 

 when the product of the vine is abundant, the 

 wines of La Vaux, though superior in quality, 

 command, when new, a price not generally ex- 

 ceeding fifty per cent beyond that of the best 



