INTRODUCTION. 1 9 



wine, which could be made for the mere cost of the 

 sugar ! 



Again, there would be a considerable quantity of 

 foliage to spare, during the remaining months of August 

 and September, to which must be added the excess in 

 the number of bunches of green fruit, which require 

 cutting off after the berries are set, in order to avoid 

 overcropping the vines, and which sometimes amount 

 to a great number ; and also the berries that are cut 

 out in the thinning of the bunches, the weight of 

 which is always considerable ; and these being added 

 to the former, would, at the most moderate calculation, 

 yield in the whole, thirty gallons of wine, thus pro- 

 duced from the superabundant foliage and green fruit 

 of vines trained on the surface of a cottage ! Bearing 

 in mind, therefore, these important facts which cannot 

 be controverted, it will, I think, be readily acknow- 

 ledged, that too great a degree of importance can 

 scarcely be attached to the cultivation of the vine. 



The management of this plant is in itself, also, one 

 of the most pleasing and most interesting branches of 

 horticultural practice ; and it may with truth be as- 

 serted, that of ail the occupations that can be resorted 

 to for the purposes of recreation, those connected with 

 the garden are the most delightful. From these, in- 

 deed, spring many of the most elegant enjoyments of 

 life, and the exercise of them is at once a source of 

 health, of contentment, and of unalloyed and tranquil- 

 lizing pleasure. So congenial to our ideas of happi- 

 ness is the recreation afforded by a garden, that there 

 is scarcely any one to whom the possession of it is not 

 an object of strong desire. 



Yet, to a very numerous class of persons, the inhab- 

 itants of towns, this source of enjoyment, is in a great 

 measure cut off. 



The vine, however, can be cultivated equally as 



