68 INTRODUCTION. 



evaporation of the summer sun, yet we find that 

 the wine of that district is unquestionably infe- 

 rior to the production of the same plant at Dijon. 

 Yet what is the result? The wines are good, and for 

 Switzerland, of extraordinary flavour, and I ask 

 the American cultivator for a moment to reflect, 

 what would be the annual product of an acre of 

 land, when told that the best wines of Neufcha- 

 tel frequently command in the country of their 

 growth, three francs of France per bottle, nearly 

 sixty cents, our money, and the best of it, when 

 age has mellowed its quality, and imparted to it 

 the flavour which only time can give, is not un- 

 frequently sold at four francs the bottle. At the 

 former price, therefore, we find the pose of land 

 producing an annual crop of four thousand bot- 

 tles, returning to the proprietor the amount of 

 1200 francs of France, upwards of two thousand 

 dollars, in a single vintage. Let me not be mis- 

 understood. I do not pretend to assert that such 

 prices can be obtained at the press, or even in 

 gross. The conservation, and previous prepara- 

 tion of the wine, and putting it into bottles for 

 the market, must precede a sale at such rates, 

 which is attended, of course, with some cost and 

 labour. This forms another branch of the 

 trade, from which a numerous portion of the 

 community derive a support, by purchasing of 

 the proprietor his crop of wine. Sometimes at 

 hazard, in the early part of the season, before the 

 character of the vintage can be known, whilst 

 the results, like the prizes of the lottery, is in the 

 wheel. At others, as the wine flows from the 

 press, when by a system of transvasing, and not 



