156 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



in cultivation, and general advancement in science,' would 

 cause vines to be grown to higher perfection in England now 

 than formerlj. May be ; not that we know any thing of the 

 alleged improvement in climate. No one can have greater 

 respect for the skill of English gardeners than we have ; we 

 are perfectly ready to recognize the claims of science, and 

 the advantages that have attended its application to rural 

 economy ; l3ut there are things which neither horticultural 

 skill nor science can effect : and among them is included an 

 exercise of control over seasons. We cannot raise the tem- 

 perature of our summer the minutest fraction of a degree ; 

 we cannot increase the heating power of the solar rays ; we 

 cannot prolong their period of action ; in short, we cannot 

 give Kent the climate even of Normandy. And yet we must 

 do all these things if we would grow wine as good as even 

 \ that of the environs of Paris. 



" The fact is, that the vine cannot be profitably cultivated 

 in vineyards beyond 50*-* north latitude, and only so high as 

 that latitude in very favorable inland situations. '■- - 



" Great Britain is, therefore, wholly beyond its limits. In 

 saying tliis, we by no means intend to assert that, by the se- 

 lection of such inferior but early varieties as the Black Clus- 

 ter, or Miller's Burgundy, (not Black Muscadine,) grapes 

 cannot sometimes be imperfectly ripened in vineyards in Eng- 

 land ; no doubt they sometimes will come to that sort of 

 maturity which persons, who do not distinguish correctly be- 

 tween sugar and vinegar, are accustomed to call ripeness ; as 

 for example last year. But we have no hesitation in express- 

 ing a decided opinion that to expect a profit from ripe grapes 

 in English vineyards, on even an average of years, is hope- 

 less." — G-ardeners' CJironicle, 1847, page 403. 



Trowell, Chapter on the Vine, page 91, says : " They re- 

 quire a light sandy ground to be planted in ; if it is a little 

 stony, it will thrive in it, if lying to the south, or southeast, 

 and if the bottom is chalky or gravelly under the surface, 

 where no springs are. It cannot be well too hot or dry, if it 



