THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 197 



■wood ; it is easily kept -within narrow limits, giving ample room 

 for the light to be admitted. 



In the best vineyards, where the richest wines are made, they 

 limit the crop a plant may bear to a small number of bunches, 

 usually from eight to twenty-five in number, and in weight to 

 from ten to twenty pounds ; in some parts of France, where 

 they plant the vines very close, to a much smaller quantity. 



At Xeres, in Spain, the sherry wine district, two or three 

 mother branches are trained up with one spur on each to 

 fruit, and the vines are planted five feet apart each way. 

 The crop is limited to eight or nine bunches, weighing about 

 fourteen or sixteen pounds. 



At other vineyards in Spain, where poor wines are made, 

 the vine is allowed to bear twenty-five or thirty pounds. 



In the vicinity of Malaga, where the Muscat of Alexandria 

 grape is grown for the purpose of making raisins, they prune 

 close to the old wood every autumn, and the plant is kept 

 close to the surface of the soil, which is a rotten slate ; the 

 shoots are not tied up, but hang, or lie upon the earth. The 

 fruit also lies on the ground, and, if it were not so gravelly, 

 it would rot ; the average yield, per vine, here, is from seven 

 to fifteen pounds ; this grape makes the best, or Muscadel 

 raisin. The grape from which the Bloom raisin is made, is an 

 inferior kind, and the grape of commerce a still more ordi- 

 nary one ; these are grown in the interior, and the vines are 

 allowed to ripen from ten to twenty-five pounds. 



Near Perpignan, in France, the vine is trimmed at about 

 six inches from the ground ; from the spurs, at this height, 

 the bearing shoots proceed, and are not supported at all ; the 

 close spur-pruning is followed ; from three to eight spurs are 

 allowed on a vine, according to its age and strength. 



Near Marseilles, they sometimes prune to three eyes on a 

 spur, and each vine is allowed to bear from eight to twelve 

 bunches, or from twelve to twenty pounds. 



At the vineyards that produce the fine wine called Hermit- 

 age, the plants are only two and a half feet apart, and are 

 two feet high, supported with stakes five feet long ; only one 



