VINE IN ITALY. 83 



where the natural heat of the climate is equal to 

 a temperature of seventy degrees, during a 

 considerable part of summer. The wines of 

 these districts, though delicious when new, will 

 hardly support the keeping of three years ; and 

 it will be recollected, that but little attention is 

 given to the conservation of them, as the vintage, 

 unlike that of Switzerland, which is exposed to 

 injury from a capricious climate, is uniform, and 

 abundant, affording each season, a product more 

 than sufficient for the requirements of the coun- 

 try, though consumed with a liberality, charac- 

 teristic of excessive abundance. The cultivation 

 of Italy affords the strongest encouragement in 

 favour of an introduction of the vine amongst us. 

 I have before adverted to the great labour be- 

 stowed on the vine in Switzerland. Such is the 

 forced state of vine growing in that country, 

 that it appears as though a constant warfare, 

 on the part of the Swiss vigneron, was waged 

 against the capricious inconstancy of his cli- 

 mate. But the cultivation of Italy is widely 

 different. Ceres and Pomona have vied in scat- 

 tering the treasures of autumn before a favoured 

 people, and the full horn of plenty, is exhausted 

 in diffusing the richest abundance through the 

 classic land. The success of the vine, with but 

 little labour, is almost miraculous, when compar- 

 ed with the cultivation of their Trans Alpine 

 neighbours ; and the superiority of the wines of 

 Italy, over those of the narrow region between 

 the Alps and the Jura, is a convincing proof 

 how greatly the quality of the vintage is indebt- 

 ed to a genial soil and propitious climate. 



