INTRODUCTION. 19 



and these being added to the former, would, at the 

 most moderate calculation, yield in the whole, thirty 

 gallons of wine, thus produced from the superabun- 

 dant foliage and green fruit of vines trained on the 

 surface of a cottage ! Bearing in mind, therefore, 

 these important facts, Avhich cannot be controverted, 

 it will, I think, be readily acknowledged, 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 

 asserted, that of all the occupations that can be 

 resorted to for the purposes of recreation, those con- 

 nected with the garden are the most delightful. 

 From these, indeed, 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 unal- 

 loyed, and tranquillizing pleasure. So congenial to 

 our ideas of happiness, is the recreation afibrded 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 in- 

 habitants of towns, this source of enjoyment is in a 

 great measure cut off. 



The vine, however, can be cultivated equally as 

 well in a town as in the country, and, in very many 

 instances, the means for that purpose are possessed in 

 a much greater degree than in the country. The im- 

 mense accumulation of buildings in towns, and their 

 suburban districts, and also those of the metropolis it- 

 self, present an astonishing extent of surface of wall- 

 ing, well calculated to ripen the fruit of the vine. 

 The only obstacle to the growth of that plant in 

 towns, is the impurity of the atmosphere; but though 

 this impediment is sufficiently formidable, certainly, 

 it exists only in the heart of London, and its dense 

 and crowded districts, and in those of other large 

 towns. 



