82 GRiVPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



grape-vines, but I selected only sucli as are raised in this neigh- 

 borhood, amounting to 100 varieties, according to the catalogue. 

 The vineyards showed but a poor crop, or, in fact, no crop at all ; 

 as the frost so killed the vines in the spring that a morgen with 

 4600 vines will not give fifty gallons of wine. But still these 

 people do well ; for when there is a good year, it pays them well 

 for all their trouble and expense during the bad ones. 



After visiting the vineyards, we went to see the venerable Mr. 

 Brunncr, who has written a valuable book upon the grape and 

 the making of red wine. For fifty years he has been engaged in 

 collecting the most celebrated varieties of vines from all coun- 

 tries, but in later years he has given his nursery and collection 

 up to his son and retired, only retaining the business of buying 

 and selling wine. 



The old gentleman is a learned man, and well merits the esteem 

 he possesses of the larger part of Germany. He is a great ama- 

 teur of roses and flowers in general, and he has a garden of con- 

 siderable size, where he has collected over one thousand varieties 

 of roses. In this favorite place of his we found the old man. lie 

 is lively, pleasant, cheerful, and content. He showed us his gar- 

 den, and opposite it a vineyard which is thirty years old, and has 

 several varieties of vines planted, but each in a separate lot. 

 Here, as elsewhere, the frost has destroyed this year's crop. The 

 vines are raised on a trellis, not tied to stakes; but small sticks 

 are driven down about five or six feet ^)^Ti ; then other sticks, 

 mostly split from poplar, are tied to the upright stakes. This 

 makes a kind of trellis. In some parts, where wood is more dis- 

 tant, and consequently costlier, the cross-pieces, instead of being 

 wood, are wire ; and it is to this that the grape-vines are tied. 

 This trellis-work is about three to three and a half feet high. The 

 opinion in respect to this mode is divided. Those districts which 

 raise their vines on sticks contend that their method is the best. 

 Those that have trellises are in favor of their own mode. One 

 thing is clear to me — that the vines raised on straight sticks are 

 easiest to work ; for when you are in a row of trellised vines, you 

 are obliged to go to the end before you can enter another row; 

 besides, the shade on the trellis must be more than on the other. 



August 31. — The vineyard of the old gentleman is on a side 

 hill, quite steep, but not so much so as to prevent a person climb- 

 ing it without steps. The soil is red, containing much gravel — 

 is volcanic. Clay is its general characteristic. There is a great 



