162 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



Even wine tainted with this, though at first repulsive, is ulti- 

 mately relished. The vine-growers of France and Portugal 

 have so strong an aversion to manuring the vines, from the 

 notion that it deteriorates the jflavor of the wine, that, in the 

 latter country, at least in the port-yielding district of the Alto 

 Douro, the use of manure is forljidden by law. This seems to 

 be a prejudice, for the German cultivators manure the vines 

 very freely, and no wines are more esteemed for bouquet than 

 those of the Rhine, and Browner justifies the practice, not 

 only with fresh cow dung, but with pieces of woolen cloth 

 steeped in Hquid manure and dried, which is found greatly to 

 augment the produce. Professor Rau bears testimony to its 

 utility. Even the proprietors of the vineyards near Bour- 

 deaux, which produce the highly-prized clarets, employ manure 

 once every four or five years. But the same vines will yield 

 a wine having very different quahties, at least as to flavor and 

 perfume, in different seasons. 



" The color of any wine is not dependant on the color of 

 the grape from which it is prepared. Champaigne is the 

 produce of a red grape. The coloring principle resides en- 

 tirely in the skin, except in the Tentilla, (the French Teintur 

 rier, or I'Ahcant,) which is entirely penetrated by the color- 

 ing principle." — Ibid. 



Dr. Bushby says that in Spain they vary, as in other coun- 

 tries, in the practice of manuring vines. At a vineyard in 

 the environs of Xeres, he says : " There was a dunghill of 

 fresh horse dung collected outside the vineyard, and though 

 we were uncertain whether we understood each other's mean- 

 ing, we supposed him to say that they manured each plant 

 annually." At another, he says : " The vines are regularly 

 manured with any kind of dung, in general, strong stable 

 dung ; not every year, because, said the vinador who accom- 

 panied us, they could not procure it." At some vineyards, 

 he makes no mention of the practice at all ; at some, they 

 manure once in four or five years, and say that is often 

 enough. 



