Chap. XXIL] CULTURE OF THE VINE AT TIIOMERY. 



581 



inches to six feet in thickness. This layer is on a reddish clay 

 of about the same thickness, and beneath the clay is a broken-up 

 stratum of building-stone filled with fissures. This building- 

 stone is easily extracted. 

 The Grapes ripen a fort- 

 night earlier in the flinty 

 districts than in those 

 parts in which the soil is 

 deeper and richer. 



"The gardens at 

 Thomery, taken altogether, 

 present much the appear- 

 ance of those of Montreuil- 

 sur-Bois. There is nothing 

 but walls in all directions, 

 distant from each other 



about forty feet, and ten Low Double Espalier, and Mode of ProU-ctins the Vhus 



feet high. This height has '" ' '^"'^' 



only obtained during the last fifteen years, before which period 

 they were rarely higher than six or seven feet. The change 

 has been advantageous for two reasons ; first, the Grape-growers 

 liave been able to increase the space required for their purpose 



by taking possession of a 

 larger portion of air instead 

 of having to buy fresh ground; 

 and secondly, the high walls 

 are found to improve the ap- 

 pearance and quality of the 

 Grapes. The walls are built 

 of hard stone quarried in the 

 neighbourhood, the stones 

 being laid with mud only. 

 The face of the wall is then 

 covered with a mortar made 

 of lime and sand, and is finally 

 covered with the same material thinned to a creamy consistence. 

 Every wall is topped with a roof of pantiles, surmounted by 

 a row of gutter-tiles. These roofs project about ten inches, and 

 below them are fixed at every yard iron rods, inclined slightly 



: of top of wall at Tliomery, s/unvin£ the 

 f>rojectwn of tlu temporary coping. 



