INTRODUCTION. 53 



and be chilled by a temperature of fifty at mid- 

 night. Such a transition, and especially where, 

 as in Switzerland, it is almost as^ regular as the 

 succession of day and night, requires all the ad- 

 vantages which art can bring to the relief of the 

 cultivation, and accordingly the vigneron of the 

 Cantons has found, that the most effectual way to 

 equalize these variations, is to give his vines that 

 heat absorbed by the ground during day, and 

 transmitted after nightfall. It is with this view 

 that the pruning is directed m Switzerland, 

 where at the spring cutting, the vine is reduced 

 to the height of three feet, which brings, of 

 course, the fruit within a short distance of the 

 soil. In fact it would be impossible in that cold 

 country to ripen the grape in any other manner; 

 whilst on the contrary, such a system, if pursued 

 in Italy, would scorch the fruit and induce a 

 premature decay. The like result would pro- 

 bably attend a similar system in Pennsylvania, 

 where the summer temperature is sufficiently 

 elevated to allow the vine to be trailed as in 

 Italy, and ripen the fruit at the distance of a 

 dozen feet from the ground. 



It is to the interest of the liberal and public 

 spirited cultivator, that we shall be indebted for 

 much of our knowledge of American vine grow- 

 ing. To that feeling which regards the ultimate 

 object, rather than the immediate effects of the 

 system, which shall induce those intelligent and 

 useful experiments, that are the strong charac- 

 teristics of Swiss cultivation, and which constant- 

 ly elicit new lights and establish new facts, of 

 E 2 



