310 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



time of the vintage, when I know they are most attractive, so 

 much so as to make it difficult to keep hands off. The vine 

 here is kept low, as described in speaking of Burgundy, and 

 tied to stakes set in rows about three feet apart, each way. 

 Except when loaded with purple clusters, a crop of beans is 

 equally beautiful, and a field of Indian corn a thousand times 

 more beautiful and majestic. The foliage is kept down by 

 carefully trimming off the new shoots, and the vine is not 

 allowed to grow more than about four feet high. 



A vineyard requires more care and labor, especially upon the 

 steep slopes of the mountains, or high hill ranges, than we are 

 apt to imagine. I saw many acres, both on the Rhine and the 

 Rhone, so steep and inaccessible that every particle of soil and 

 manure had been carried up in baskets on the heads of women. 

 The plough is not used in the vineyard. The whole cultivation 

 is that of patient hand labor. In cold and exposed situations, 

 each vine has to be bound up iii straw late in tlie fall, and 

 carefully opened in spring. 



I often wondered how it was that the vineyards were not 

 fenced and protected, for they are everywhere open here as 

 they were in France and other parts of Europe. Is it possible, 

 thought I, that the grape is not stolen, or the owner molested ? 

 Are people more honest here than in other parts of the world ? 

 On inquiry, I satisfied myself that boys are boys all the world 

 over, and light-fingered men and women quite as plenty, and 

 in many sections a great deal more so, than in America. When 

 the grape begins to ripen so as to tempt the intruder, a guard 

 is placed over them by the government, and kept night and 

 day, except when workmen are employed in the field. It is 

 even said that during the ripening of the grape, the owner 

 himself is not allowed to enter his vineyard without permission 

 or giving notice, as the guard, who watches several fields, could 

 not distinguish individuals at a distance, and could not be 

 expected to leave his post and run half a mile to see that all 

 was right. 



So too the police fix the day when the vintage shall com- 

 mence, as they do with respect to the harvest of many other 

 crops in Germany, and if the owner does not comply with the 

 laws as to giving notice, &c., he forfeits his right to the protec- 



