18 INTRODUCTION. 



" Remarks on the Art of making Wine," will suffi- 

 ciently show : 



" Chemical examination has proved that the young 

 shoots, the tendrils, and the leaves of the vine, possess 

 properties, and contain substances, exactly similar to 

 the crude fruit. It was no unnatural conclusion that 

 they might equally be used for the purposes of making 

 wine. Experiments were accordingly instituted in 

 France for this purpose, and they have been repeated 

 here with success. From vine leaves, water, and 

 sugar, wines have been thus produced, in no respect 

 differing from the produce of the immature fruit, 

 and consequently resembling wines of foreign growth." 



Here, then, is a most important advantage resulting 

 from the culture of the vine, and one, indeed, that is 

 little inferior to that which is derived from the produc- 

 tion of the ripened fruit itself. And in order that it 

 may be properly estimated, it must be borne in mind, 

 that throughout the growing season, the superabun- 

 dant foliage of a vine, which consists chiefly of the ex- 

 tremities of the shoots, and the tendrils, is so great, as 

 to require to be plucked off once in every seven days, 

 if not oftener. It is further stated in the above men- 

 tioned work, that from forty to fifty pounds' weight of 

 leaves, &c., will produce about ten gallons of wine. 



Now, every hundred square feet of the surface of a 

 wall, when covered with the foliage of vines in vigorous 

 growth, will yield on an average, every week from 

 the middle of May to the first of August, two pounds' 

 weight of excess of foliage. Allowing, therefore, the 

 surface of the walls of a common-sized cottage to 

 contain five hundred square feet, on which vines could 

 be trained, it appears that, during the eleven weeks 

 above mentioned, they would yield a sufficient quantity 

 of foliage to produce upwards of twenty gallons of 



