264 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



From all the accounts which we have been enabled to 

 receive, it will appear that the climate of America, in the 

 latitude of Boston, the capital of New England, differs 

 not very materially, in the average amount of heat and 

 cold during the summer half of the year, from the climate 

 of Paris, in the north of France. Their spring time, from 

 its commencement, which is early in March, is obnoxious 

 to storms, and the occasional and destructive frosts of 

 winter. Our springs, from their not commencing till a 

 later period, are more frequently intermingled with the 

 heat of summer; and the vine, with us, never, or but 

 rarely, begins to vegetate till the vernal frosts are gone. 

 With us, vegetation slumbers long, and profoundly secure, 

 immured in our winters, so intensely cold, nor awakes till 

 the danger is past. For the longer duration of their 

 springs, their summers, and their autumns, we are more 

 than recompensed, even in our winters, so rigorous and so 

 fortunately prolonged ; and in our skies, so serene and 

 unclouded ; and in a sun less inconstant, and far more 

 intense in its heat, from its greater elevation. 



In the middle and northern departments of France, 

 and in vineyard culture, the vines are kept low, like plan- 

 tations of the raspberry ; the vines being planted in close 

 order ; or they are trained to low stakes, from two to 

 four feet in height, which are. renewed every year. When 

 the vine has risen to a height sufficiently above, it is bent 

 over and passed to the top of the next stake, and secured 

 in its rear ; its luxuriance being thus restrained. 



Midway, on the direct route from Havre to Paris, and a 

 little beyond the city of Rouen, commences the region of 

 vines ; considerable portions of the land being covered 

 with vineyards to the hill tops. Universally the vines are 

 planted in close order, and kept low, being trained to ver- 

 tical stakes of but about four feet in height. In autumn 

 these stakes are taken up, and stacked on the ground, or 

 housed. So also it is in Portugal, according to Mr. Lou- 

 don. There, too, the vine is trained in the same manner as 

 in France, at least in those districts where it is cultivated 

 for making wine. The plants are seldom allowed to grow 

 more than 3 or 4 feet high, and the roots are planted about 

 the same distance asunder. The young shoots are trained 

 on poles of reed, or trained horizontally on the tops of each 



