208 GRAPE CULTURE AND 



shall extend my vineyards to the hillsides and more elevated 

 slopes, of which I have an abundance, and would advise 

 every one to do the same. I would not have planted in the 

 valley, but my predecessor thought himself safe, as there had 

 not been any frosts there within the memory of that famous 

 personage, the " oldest inhabitant." 



Sometimes, but very rarely, we are visited by destructive 

 hailstorms in early spring, which are similar in their effects to 

 frost. I would advise the same treatment in that case, cut- 

 ting back the injured shoots, and trusting to the dormant 

 buds for the crop. 



Yet another point in this connection ought to be mentioned 

 here. It is often the case that we have extremely hot weather 

 at the beginning of the vintage, when fermentation sets in 

 with great violence, but stops at a certain point, which I shall 

 more fully explain when I come to wine making. Between 

 the 1 5th of September and the ist of October, we generally 

 have a few showers which refresh the vines and the grapes; 

 after which there seldom is any trouble, but fermentation 

 goes on normally and well. This later crop, delayed about 

 three weeks, will be apt to escape this trying period, ripening 

 after it, but still with abundance of sugar to make a first class 

 wine, and I think will have more bouquet and sprightliness 

 than the first would have had. It is not what is termed 

 " second crop " which comes on the laterals of the fruit bear- 

 ing shoots, but ''first crop" from the main shoots, only de- 

 layed a few weeks. I hope to report to my readers, before 

 this volumes reaches them, how far these conjectures have 

 been verified by the facts. 



Some varieties are also much hardier than others, and 

 among these I will name the Pedro Ximenes (erroneously 

 Sauvignon Vert, Colombar) Mataro, Marsanne, Green. Hun- 

 garian, Clairette Blanche. All of these start late in spring, 

 and are therefore not apt to suffer so much. 



