86 CULTIVATION OP THE 



summit of the mountain, occupy the line of road, 

 affording vines almost as various as their nume- 

 rous positions, and differing from each other ac- 

 cording to their several exposures and culti- 

 vation. 



As I passed the last time, I found at the sum- 

 mit the vines loaded with ripe fruit, though a 

 heavy fall of snow was at that moment covering 

 the ground. 



The premature frosts to which a position so 

 elevated is naturally exposed, are manifestly in- 

 jurious to the vintage. The wines of such situa- 

 tions are unequal, and no reliance can be had on 

 their quality, though it sometimes happens in a 

 favourable season that they are peculiarly fine, 

 and in such seasons, from an uncertainty of the 

 mountain climate, the wines bear a correspondent 

 value. 



On descending the southern side of the Appe- 

 nines, a more genial climate affords a belter cul- 

 tivation, and here the olive shares with the vine 

 the attention of the husbandman. In general 

 they are found on the same ground, the olive 

 being here, as the mulberry inLombardy,the sup- 

 port of the vine. In some of these positions the 

 soil is a red gravel, which, from its loose and 

 open character, parts freely with the rains inci- 

 dent to a mountain climate. 



Among the wines, both white and red, of 

 Tuscany, but few will bear a foreign transporta- 

 tion without a reinforcement, which destroys the 

 delicacy of their flavour, and neutralizes the fine 

 properties of the wine. 



A favourite wine of that country is the " Alia- 



