50 



INTRODUCTION. 



is never perhaps fully indemnified for the pre- 

 cautionary measure. 



The municipal regulation though not dejure, 

 is de facto imperative, and produces all the in- 

 covenience of a positive law. 



I am of opinion that in Pennsylvania, where 

 the season is so warm as to allow the gathering 

 of the fruit during the entire period of a month, 

 that one good press would be sufficient to per- 

 form the work of a vineyard of fifty acres. Such 

 too would be the case in France, if the proprie- 

 tor were not required to gather his fruit within 

 the time specified by the law; and the fruit being 

 thus gathered must immediately be subjected to 

 the operations of the press, or the whole would 

 be lost. 



A dry soil and climate are both favourable to 

 the prosperity of the vine. This fact is so well 

 understood by the Swiss vigneron, that every 

 advantage within his reach is availed to the attain- 

 ment of these desiderata. I have known in the 

 Canton de Vaud, in vine grounds occupying the 

 side of a mountain, the soil of which was a mix- 

 ture of stone and gravel, where, from the preci- 

 pitous position, the descent was rapid, and the 

 soil so loose, that it might fairly be supposed 

 that the least moisture from springs or rain would 

 not remain an hour. Deep trenches, or artificial 

 drains, crossing in oblique angles at intersection of 

 about fifty feet, the whole area of a hundred acres. 

 The subterraneous conduits were about three feet 

 square, the superior surface being probably four 

 feet below that of the vineyard, and entire- 



