INTRODUCTION. 39 



productions of the adjoining districts. This ad- 

 vance, however, is considered sufficient to ex- 

 empt them from municipal interference. 



The wines of the communes of Orbe, Valey- 

 res, and Montcherand, were, by the tariffof 1831, 

 assessed at four batz* the Pot. If we assume as 

 the value of the vintage of La Vaux for that year, 

 the rate of six batz the Pot, at which price, 

 however, I have no idea it could have been 

 bought of the proprietor, it will result that the 

 Pose of that district produced to the cultivator 

 the sum of three hundred and sixty dollars, our 

 money. This calculation is made on the assump- 

 tion that the Pose produced an average of two 

 thousand Pots of wine, which I believe was fully 

 within the product of the vintage of that year. 



To arrive at the net amount which a similar 

 cultivation would with us return to the vine 

 dresser, the expense must of course be deducted; 

 and this is a problem, the solving of which falls 

 necessarily within the purview of the practical 

 agriculturalist, acquainted with the results of 

 labour in Pennsylvania. If in the estimate there 

 be error, I incline to the belief that it will not 

 be found against the American cultivation. The 

 amount of duty in our country, paid by the con- 

 sumer of foreign wines; the expenses of trans- 

 portation abroad to the port of shipment ; the 

 charges of freight, insurance, commission of 

 factors, with the various items which swell the 

 cost of the foreign article by the time it reaches 

 -our market, operate as a bounty on the domestic 



* The batz is equal in yalue to three cents, our money. 



