LOCATION OF A VINEYARD. 275 



to succeed here than it docs somewhere else. A man who 

 has no intelligence and no brains should go where success 

 comes of itself; but if he has those qualities by which he 

 can overcome obstacles, let him stay where there are obsta- 

 cles to be overcome. There is an advantage in being so far 

 north, in the fact that we are nearer the markets. We have 

 a better market than they have at the South, and the market 

 for grapes is somewhat limited by the difficulties of transpor- 

 tation. It is difficult to get them to market in their perfec- 

 tion ; hence they should be grown near the market, and not 

 at a great distance. 



Now, to begin with, I propose, in a practical way, to tell 

 you how I should attempt to raise grapes, in the light of my 

 present experience. I do not say that I should do the same 

 thing a year hence, but as far as* I know now, I will give you 

 an idea of the way I should go to work. The first thing is 

 choice of a location for the vineyard. We are necessarily 

 limited to this latitude, but we want a location that Avill be as 

 far south as possible. How shall we get it? AVe must se- 

 lect ft warm spot, to begin with. It will not do to go on Mt. 

 Wachusett, it is too cold ; it is virtually two or three hundred 

 miles north; it is out of the range of successful cultivation. 

 We want to get as far south as we can, and still keep in Mas- 

 sachusetts. To do it, we must take some land that turns 

 towards the sun, receiving its rays more nearly perpendicular ; 

 that is, in fact, practically further soutl^ Hence we want 

 land sloping to the south. But then there is a limit to that 

 slope. It may be too steep, when it will cost too much to 

 cultivate it ; we have to terrace it, or something of that kind, 

 and the land washes badly. But we want as much of a 

 southern slope as we can get without sacrificing too much. 

 In that way, we get south fifty or a hundred miles. That is 

 one way to overcome the difficulty of being too far north. 



Then, again, the particular lay of the land has considera- 

 ble to do with the ripening of the grape. If we locate our 

 vineyard in the bottom of a valley, where it is very hot in 

 the day-time, where, perhaps, the thermometer would show 

 the highest average range of temperature during the season, 

 we are liable to have severe frosts early in the autumn, which, 

 although they may not spoil the grape, will injure the foliage, 



