54 INTRODUCTION. 



which, even the practical vigneron can have no 

 anticipation. 



Though delighting in a warm and invigorating 

 sunshine, the vine suffers from an elevated tem- 

 perature, and hence it may be found that with 

 us the reflected heat of the southern declination 

 may prove unfavourable to the cultivation. 

 Another objection to such a position with us 

 may possibly be, that the spring vegetation will 

 be premature, and the blossoms endangered by 

 the late frosts of the season. These are facts to 

 be deduced only from experience. The scorch- 

 ing heats of the torrid zone, and the chilling 

 climates of the north, are both unfavourable to 

 the prosperity of the vine. The best are un- 

 questionably those of a temperate climate, and 

 the soils in which we find the richest productions 

 of the vine, are those of a light sand, and a soil 

 of stone and gravel. In the latter, the absorp- 

 tion of heat during the day, and transmission of 

 it, when the rays of the sun are oblique, tend to 

 maintain an equilibrium of temperature highly 

 favourable to the ripening of the fruit, and a 

 concentration of the sacharine principle, which 

 imparts to the vine its most delicious flavour. 



The rains as well as the atmosphere insinuate 

 most freely into such soils, and contribute, and 

 contrive to expand and develop the principle of 

 vegetation. The wines of a close and loamy 

 soil are always inferior, and though the plant 

 shows in such ground, a vigorous vegetation, the 

 product of the vintage is always mediocre. The 

 European planter, north of Milan, prefers the 

 inclination of a hill, and the neighbourhood of a 



