No. 2. 



Field-icork in a Forward State. 



67 



therefore, give a produce of seven or eight 

 pounds of grapes to each vine — a calculation 

 which I should think must include a much 

 greater proportion of stinted vines than of 

 luxuriant ones; for the majority of those in 

 Don Salvador's vineyard would, I have no 

 doubt, yield double that quantity. Including, 

 however, those vines wlifch are visible at the 

 tops even of the highest hills, the calculation 

 is likely enough to be correct. The grapes, 

 when dried, are worth double what they 

 would yield made into wine, unless spoiled 

 by the rain. 



They usually commence gathering the 

 grapes about the middle of August, choosing 

 only such bunches as are ripe. They return 

 after a week or two to make another selec- 

 tion, and so on for a third and fourth time. 

 A place is always reserved in the vineyard, 

 free from plants, on which to spread the 

 grapes when gathered ; and they choose a 

 spot where the soil is of the darkest colour, 

 in order to its keeping the full force of the 

 sun's rays during the day, and retaining the 

 heat during the night. The bunches are 

 spread out separately on the ground, and 

 never allowed to press upon each other: ac- 

 cording to Don Salvador, they are only once 

 turned over. At the end of fifteen days 

 they are, in general, sufficiently dry. This 

 season was more unfortunate lor the early 

 commencement of the rains, than any season 

 for many years, and the crop was remark- 

 ably fine. It is Don Salvador's intention in 

 future years, to have wooden toldos, or awn- 

 ings, prepared to shelter tlie grapes, while 

 drying, against the rains, and also to cover 

 them during the night. He says that the 

 dryinsj of the grapes is so much retarded by! 

 their being exposed to the dews during the 

 flight, that when he has the means of cover- 

 ing them at night, he expects tiiey will be 

 dried in half the time usual at present. Be- 

 fore the bunches are spread out, the small 

 grapes are picked out, as well as any which 

 may happen to be injured; the small grapes 

 are dried separately. I saw a heap of them 

 in Don Salvador's house, which had the ap- 

 pearance of very large currants. When the 

 grapes are turned, any spoiled ones are, or 

 ought to be picked out; they have no par- 

 ticular rule for judging when they are sutfi- 

 ciently dry — it is learnt by experience. 

 When they happen to get rain while dry- 

 ing, the stalks become black or rusty look- 

 ing, instead of being of a bright light brown. 

 According to Don Salvador, the district 

 which produces the Muscatel grape extends 

 only two leagues further east; that is, not 

 more than three leagues in all, alongf the 

 coast, and two leagues inwards. He savs 

 the value of the land p'.mted with it is about 



3,000 rials, or 150 Spanish dollars per fan- 

 ega. — Busby's Vineyards of France and 

 Spain. 



The Advantages of having Field-work 

 always in a Forward State. 



The farmer who " takes time by the foretop" and drives 

 liis business, enjoys a kind of independence which he 

 nevercan feel, whose business drives him. Thewinter 

 is approaching, when if it be improved, much, very 

 much may be accomplished to forward the spring ope- 

 rations. The following observations are to the point, 

 and various useful hints may be taken from them, to 

 accelerate the ofttimes hurried claims of early spring. 

 They are taken from Stephe7is' Book of the Farm. — Ed. 



" Who breakesh timely his fallow or ley, 

 Sets forward his husbandrie many a waye. 

 This, timely well ended, doth forwardly bring 

 Not only thy tillage, but all other thing." 



TUSSER. 



The season — early spring — having ar- 

 rived when the labouring and sowing land 

 for the various crops cultivated on a tarm of 

 mixed husbandry are about to occupy all 

 hands for several months to come, the in- 

 junction of old Tusser to undertake them in 

 time, that each may be finished in its proper 

 season, should be regarded as a sound ad- 

 vice; tor whenever your field labour is ad- 

 vanced ever so little at every opportunity of 

 weather and leisure, no premature approach 

 of the ensuing season can come upon you 

 unawares; and should the season, on the 

 other hand, be delayed beyond its usual pe- 

 riod by natural causes, you will be ready to 

 proceed with your work whenever the wea- 

 ther proves lavourable. When work ad- 

 vances little by little, there is time to do it 

 effectually; or, if it be not then executed in 

 an elfectual manner, you have yourself to 

 blame for not looking after it. VVhen I say, 

 however, that work may be advanced little 

 by little, I do not mean that it should be done 

 in a slow, careless manner, as if the work- 

 people were unimpressed with the import- 

 ance of what they were doing. The advan- 

 tage of doing even a little is that whatever 

 is done is not to do afterward ; and that a 

 little may be done as well, and in as short a 

 time, as if it had been done as a part of a 

 great operation. In this way, even if only 

 one man is kept constantly at the plough, 

 he would turn over, in the course of a time 

 considered short when looked back upon, an 

 extent of ground almost incredible. He will 

 turn over an imperial acre a day, that is, six 

 acres a week, twenty-four acres in a month, 

 'and seventy-two acres in the course of the 

 ;dark and short days of the winter quarter, 

 I All this he will accomplish on the supposi- 

 tion that he has been enabled to goat his 



