452 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



and are never used. Indeed, their use seems to 

 be quite unknown throughout this district. The 

 number of the buds or knots left in pruninn: vv;\? 

 from three to six, accordinir to the ptreuifih of the 

 plant. They are universally pruned in the spur 

 fashion. Having menlioned the pystem ol" alter- 

 nate long and spur shoots, Mr. Durand's steward. 

 who seemed to be a respectable and \vell-iii(iirnied 

 man, said that it would sooner wear out the plant?. 

 I told lu'm of the precaution Mr. Domecf], of Xe- 

 res, intended to adopt in order to prevent the 

 attacks of worms. He said that, however close 

 the branch might be pruned, there was no 

 danger of these worms finding their way to the 

 heart of the stock, unless the stock itself were 

 bruised or broken. It was, he said, by wounds or 

 splits in the stock itself that the worms found ac- 

 cess to it, and not by close pruning of (he npw 

 wood. ^ In this opinion I perfectly coincide with 

 hini. There are no worms in any of their vines, 

 which are, indeed, all in the highest possible order. 



The average produce of these vines is six bar- 

 riques (hog?:heads) per hectare ; this is about 140 

 gallons per English acre ; a much smaller produce 

 than I would have expected from the general 

 health and vigor of the vines, alihouMi it still 

 continues a matter of surprise that they should 

 produce at all considerintr the jireat hardness of 

 the subsoil, and the slight hold of it which is 

 originally given them. Part of the vineyard had 

 already been pruned, and two men were busy in a 

 part which we visited. There had been fourteen 

 men employed the day before ; but this was the 

 fete day of ihe neighboring village, and only two 

 oJ the men had come. It requires a man ten days 

 to prune a hectare. The instrument which they 

 use IS contrived to give, in some decree, the pur- 

 chase of a lever. 



With the edge they cut with orpnt care the 

 shoots where a bud is left for the followinir spas^^n ; 

 but the superfluous shoots are chopped off with 

 the blunt edge with very little ceremony. I took 

 this opportunity to request that Mr. Durand 

 would give me a parcel of cutiinrrs of all the kinds 

 ol vmcs he possessed ; and he immediately gave 

 orders to his steward accordingly. 



Between twelve and one o'clock we returned to 

 the house, and after a substantial dejeuner d la 

 Joiircheite, visited the wine cellar. Alonfr the 

 \<^all, on each side of the cellar, are arranged a 

 number of large vats, containinrr from thirty to 

 fifty barriques— that is, from 1800 to 3000 gallons 

 each ; the whole number was fourteen or sixteen. 

 I hey were placed horizontally, with one end to 

 the wall. Above them, on each side, is a floor or 

 platlorm, which is on a level with a door that 

 opens to the cellar Ihom a higher side; by this 

 door the grapes are brought in^ On the platform 

 are several trouphs, about 10 feet lono-, by 21 feet 

 wide, with the side sloping inwards."^ Above the 

 bottom of the trough there is a false bottom, per- 

 forated with holes, and divided by open spaces, 

 which allow the liquid to pass to the true bottom, 

 whence it flows, by a srout at the one end, into an 

 aperture of about a foot square in the upper side 

 of the vat underneath. While the men are 

 treading the grapes in these troughs, they take out 

 a portion of the stalks by means of a three-pronged 

 stick, and after the grapes are pretty well brol<en, 

 the whole contents of the trough are emptied into 

 ithe vat. In the vat it is left to lerment, from 18 to 



24 days, according to circumstances, and at the 

 end of that period, the wine is drawn off to ano- 

 ther vat, by means of a syphon and a pump. The 

 wiarc, or skins and groumis, are then removed to 

 the press, and the wine extracted from them ia 

 kept afiart as being of inferior rpiality. In the 

 end o!' each vat there is an ai'.enure sufficiently 

 large for a man to enter and clean it out. Tliis ia 

 strongly secured by means of copfjcr screws. Af- 

 ter having been removed to a clean vat, the wine 

 is kept in it till the Ibllovvincr spring, when it is 

 aorain drawn off the lees. When twelve months 

 old, it is sent to Port Vendre, where Mr. Durand 

 has very ex'ensive stores and cellars ; it is iheie 

 mixed vviih 10 per cent, of brandy, and shipped fur 

 Paris. This is the ordinary description of Rou- 

 sillon* \v\ne, of the plain ; but being mnde with 

 more care than that of the smaller proprietors, it 

 is the best of its kind. The wine of the hills is of 

 a better quality. 



Exclus ve of the ploughing, wliieh is done by 

 their permanent servants, the management of the 

 vines costs about thirty francs a hectare. The 

 ploughing aud ihe vintage may cost filieen franca 

 more — being, in all, about 16--. Eiiirlish an acre. 

 The value of the produce is Irom 15 to 18 fiancs 

 a charge of 26 English gallons ; or from 180 to 216 

 Irancs per hectare — that is, Irom £3 48. to £4 16s. 

 per English acre. 



After having walked into the garden, which 

 was well stocked with fruit trees, we proceeded to 

 the other property which Messrs: Durand pro- 

 posed we should vit^it. This was entirely an irri- 

 gated farm. It consists oi'240 hectares, 562 acres, 

 and every acre of it can be laid under water when 

 irr'jraiion is required. This farm supports between 

 1.000 and 1,100 sheep, 114 head of cattle, and 

 about a dozen horses, and there is always less 

 than two-fifihs of the land in pasture or green 

 crops ; the lucerne is cut five times in the season, 

 and twice eaten down. The soil is a fine li-iable 

 mould. In a field, where five ploughs were at 

 work, it turned up in the finest possible condition. 

 They were ploughing in wheat. Part of the field 

 was manured, and part had been manured the 

 preceding season. Messrs. Durand liave an ex- 

 cellent breed of cattle; the working oxen as fine 

 almost as any 1 have ever seen, alihoueh I have 

 seen larger. In all the qualifications of depth ai>d 

 breadth of carcass, they were nearly perfect, with 

 the line of the back perfectly straight, and the tail 

 well set on. They were yoked with bows and 

 yokes, the bows made of wood, which seemed to 

 answer very well. The ploughs and carts were of 

 the same construction as lh"se generally in use in 

 the country. The ploughman drove his pair of 

 oxen with a goad fixed to the end of a long pole; 

 on the other end of which was the small spade for 

 cleaning the plough. They seemed to make ex- 

 cellent work, notwithstanding the rudeness of the 

 plough. 



The buildinffs on this farm were very extensive, 

 and, though old, are now undergoing a thorough 

 repair, which will leave ihem in excellent condi- 

 tion when completed. The stables and sheep 

 houses are very spacious, as both cattle and sheep 

 are iioused every night. The lambs are alway.s 

 kept in the house, and the ewes are brought home 



* Kousillon is the old name of the province which is 

 now called Pyrenees Orientalef. 



