48 INTRODUCTION. 



well discriminate in his operations, as the grower 

 of a field of corn, on whom no such restriction is 

 imposed. The period of the gathering varies, of 

 course, with the season and situation, allowing 

 thereby the vine dresser of the south, where the 

 vintage is generally fifteen or twenty days ear- 

 lier in the season, to migrate northwardly, to aid 

 in the gathering of the late districts. The go- 

 vernment of France has a property to sustain 

 abroad in the character of her wines, and the 

 measure may resemble the law of Pennsylvania, 

 which prohibits the exportation of the flour of 

 the State, previously to an inspection as to its 

 quality. This regulation prevails in Switzerland, 

 and produces, it appears to me, all the inconve- 

 nience arising from the measure in France, with- 

 out the redeeming point which mitigates in some 

 degree the odium of the French law. Switzer- 

 land has but little, if any, export for her wines, 

 and the law which compels the proprietor to 

 gather his crop within a specific or given pe- 

 riod, greatly increases the expense of the vintage, 

 as well as that of the wine making establish- 

 ment. 



I passed the summer, and vintage of 1831, 

 among the vine covered hills of Valeyres, in the 

 Canton of Vaud. My adjoining neighbour, Mr. 

 Charles de Bonstetten, son of the celebrated au- 

 thor of Geneva, is among the most intelligent 

 and successful cultivators of the Canton of Vaud. 

 To accomplish the work of his vintage, he is 

 obliged from the circumstance of being thus 

 limited by the municipal restriction, to employ 

 seven presses to perform the work of fifty acres. 



