FROM PARIS TO FKANICFORT ON THE MAINE. 59 



class. The railway carried iis past many celebrated vineyards; 

 but, as the money was at loio tide, in our pockets, we were forced 

 to delay our investigations till high tide, which we hoped would 

 take place, as usual, in twenty-four hours or less. 



This money affair would have been more annoying than it real- 

 ly was had it not been for Dr. Prccht, who furnished me with twen- 

 ty-five florins to proceed on my way to Frankfort. It was alto- • 

 gether brought on by the carelessness of the corresponding clerk 

 of the house Hcntsch and Lutschcr. I purposely put this little ac- 

 cident in my report to warn my fellow-citizens who travel never 

 to let their purse run down low enough to prevent themselves 

 from reaching the next-named place on their letter of credit. A 

 letter of credit, in traveling, is preferable to cash, as this may be 

 lost or be stolen ; besides, the constant change of money in the 

 different countries constitutes a certain loss, not taking into con- 

 sideration that changers are never over-honest people. Not only, 

 then, is a letter of credit safer, but also much more preferable. 



On the road from Coblentz I opened a conversation with a 

 clergyman, who gave me some information on vines and their va- 

 rieties. I also had a conversation with the proprietor of a vine- 

 yard, who is himself manufacturing wine. He recommends to 

 me in very high terms the hydraulic press, to press out the juice 

 from the pulp of the grapes. He added that this new press, only 

 introduced five years ago, works admirably well, and that all those 

 who make any progress in wine manufacturing introduce it into 

 their establishments. I asked him why they had abandoned the 

 cylinder crushers, and again adopted the old method of stamping 

 with the feet or with wooden pieces ? I was answered that cylin- 

 ders crush more or less of the stems, which, containing a bitter 

 juice, communicates the flavor to the wine, destroying some of 

 its bouquet, and making it less palatable. In regard to nurseries, 

 the general answer I receive is, that there are none of any conse- 

 quence in the neighborhood. The trees on the road have no fruit 

 at all. Some attribute this to the frost, others again to the last 

 year's crop, which was extraordinarily heavy, and consequently 

 spoiled this year's. I told them that in America we had a mode 

 of regulating, to some extent, the bearing of our trees by root- 

 pruning them. They listened attentively, but I saw by their 

 smiles, which were hardly suppressed, that they very much doubt- 

 ed my statements. The people here, in general agricultural knowl- 

 edge, are much behind ours of the same class. We arrived in 



