68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to enjoy it. I have never seen a day so hot that the grape 

 did not seem to thrive all the better for that heat. All cannot 

 have a south aspect, however ; and the next best aspect would 

 be, in my experience, south-west ; next, south-east ; next, west ; 

 and, lastly, east. This runs counter to the teaching of the 

 books, and to the opinions of many horticulturists. When some 

 eminent grape-growers came to my house, and saw a grape 

 growing in a west aspect, they said they wondered it throve 

 there at all ; but I invited their attention to another vine, of 

 the same age, growing on the east side, and that on the west 

 side, although the characteristics of the soil were less favorable, 

 was much the best. And it seems to me there is a good reason 

 for this. In the autumn, when the atmosphere cools in the 

 night, the afternoon sun lies on the west side until the last 

 moment, and that afternoon sun is of great service in carrying 

 the grape through the night, without interrupting the flow of its 

 juices. Climate is somewhat within your control, in this mat> 

 ter of aspect. A south aspect, with surrounding woods, will so 

 modify an otherwise rugged and severe climate as to be equal to 

 a degree or two of latitude ; for although the grape does not 

 need the protection of the woods against the winter winds, it 

 does need all the heat it can get, as I said before ; and a vine- 

 yard planted near woods, which interjcept the rapid currents of 

 air which carry away the heat, you can see would be a great 

 deal warmer than if lying in an open space. So that climate 

 may be modified by patches of trees, and the grapes have a pro- 

 tection equal to covering up in winter, or to a degree or two of 

 latitude ; and many grapes which are not hardy enough for field 

 culture, but of excellent quality, may be grown there with suc- 

 cess, and so we may increase the variety of grapes we grow, and 

 have some grapes, with that degree of protection, which otherwise 

 we could not have. Protection, although by some of our grape- 

 growers believed to be indispensable, even to our hardy grape, 

 implies so much labor and expense, and at a time when every 

 farmer is so busy that he will be pretty sure to neglect it, or not 

 be able to give it to the vines, would be such a drawback to the 

 field culture of the grape, that it would, probably, never prevail 

 largely in Massachusetts, where labor is so costly. I know that 

 in Europe, in some districts, near the north line of grape culture, 

 they do take down and protect their vines in winter. But labor 



