ON ASPECT. 37 



CHAPTER IV. 



ON ASPECT. 



A GOOD aspect, which is of prime importance in 

 perfecting the fruit of the vine, may be termed, when 

 considered in reference to the surface of walls, an 

 amehoration of chmate; and soil and climate are the 

 two grand causes of all the ditferences which appear 

 in the prodnctions of the earth. 



The warmer the aspect, the greater perfection does 

 the grape attain in our climate, provided all other cir- 

 cumstances are alike ; and if the greatest quantity of 

 the sun's rays shining on the surface of a wall were 

 alone to be considered as constituting the best aspect, 

 there would, of course, be no difficulty in naming a 

 due southern one as better than any other. But 

 warmth alone is not sufficient; shelter is equally 

 necessary. There is a strong counteracting agent, 

 which, as its effects fall more or less on any surface 

 of walling on which vines are trained, proportionately 

 injures them and retards their growth, and the matu- 

 ration of their fruit. That agent is the wind. 



There is no period in the growth of a vine, from 

 the moment of its being planted as a cutting or other- 

 wise, to the extremity of its existence, in which any 

 movement of the air, that may properly be called 

 wind^ will not have a greater or less pernicious effect 

 on its well-being. The perspiration of a vine is so 

 great, principally through the medium of its fine large 

 leaves, with their broad surfaces disposed in such a 

 manner as to enjoy the full effects of the solar and 

 atmospherical influences, that an extraordinary supply 

 of sap is required, to rise every instant of time 

 throughout the growing season, to enable it to recruit 

 its loss. On the foliage of a plant, performing some 

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