198 THE CULTQRE OF THE GRAPE. 



branch is allowed to fruit, and this is pruned back to from 

 three to eight ejes, and from eight to ten bunches is the av- 

 erage crop. 



At the vineyards which produce the Burgundy wine, the 

 plants are grown yet closer together. The rows of vines are 

 only two and a half feet apart, and the plants in the rows are 

 only twelve or fifteen inches. After the vines have been 

 three years planted, the space between the rows is filled up 

 with vines, making the distance between the plants only fif- 

 teen inches. 



At the vineyards of Epernay and Ay, where the Cham- 

 paigne wine is made, the vines are, in the rows, planted as 

 near together as six or seven inches, and the distance be- 

 tween the rows is only eight or nine. Of course, the vines are 

 feeble, and produce but a small quantity of fruit each ; the 

 shoots are also very small and weak, but the vines being so close 

 together, the general aggregate of fruit produced is large. 



At the vineyards on the banks of the Rhine, the vines are 

 supported by stakes five or six feet long ; this is the case, gen- 

 erally, in the vineyard culture of the grape in France. The 

 spur-pruning is usually adopted. 



In Italy, also, the same system is generally employed. In 

 this, and other countries, I have seen the table, or flat trellis 

 used. — (See note to North Carolina system.) By the road 

 sides, the long cane-pruning is practised in the following man- 

 ner : — A vine is trained up the trunk of a tree, and, at the 

 height of twelve or fifteen feet, a long cane of the vine is led 

 from this tree to another, and secured ; these canes, hanging 

 in festoons, present a beautiful appearance when the fruit is 

 in perfection.* 



In the Azores, the vines are not supported by stakes ; usu- 

 ally, a small pile of stones encircle the plant, and the bearing 



* "As we advanced, the houses became more Italian-like, — and the vines, heavy 

 with ripening grapes, hung from bough to bough, through the mulberry orchards." 

 Page 239. 



" The vines which hung from tree to tree, were almost breaking beneath clusters 

 as heavy and rich, as those which the children of Israel bore on staves, from the 

 Promised Land."— Page 276. Views A-Foot, by J. Bayard Taylor. New York, 

 1846. 



