188 GK.VPE CULTURE AND WINE-MAKING. 



XIII. 

 GRAPE CULTURE IN AFRICA, AJ^IERICA, RUSSIA, AND ENGLAND. 



In Africa tlie culture of the vine is not very extensive. Egypt, 

 in the times of the Komans, furnished excellent wines, but at 

 present only few. The same is the case with Abyssinia. 



In the Barbary States vines are found in some places. At the 

 southern extremity of Africa is the Cape of Good Hope, of the 

 wines of which we have already spoken. 



The Cape de Verd Islands export no wines. The Canary Isl- 

 ands produce a large quantity. Teneriflfe produces yearly 40,000 

 pipes, or about 4,400,000 gallons. They make from grapes trans- 

 planted from 4ihe Morca a kind of Malvasie wine, of agreeable 

 taste, sweet and spirituous ; and Yidogne^ which, though keen and 

 tart when new, gains by age. The wines of the Palma Island, 

 though inferior to those of Teneriffe, are more tasty. Madeira 

 has been already mentioned. 



Of the Azores, St. Michael produces about 5000 pipes, and Pico 

 from 15,000 to 30,000. Both are pretty good wines. Fayal ex- 

 ports much of the same, and of her own growth, which is very 

 good. 



In the northern parts of America the wine culture at present is 

 very limited. Canada has one kind of wild grape, which is, nev- 

 ertheless, made only some use of at Montreal. The United States 

 have also some wild grapes. In the environs of Philadelphia, 

 Cincinnati, and Herman, considerable progress is already made in 

 this line. California produces wines much resembling those of 

 Madeira.* 



In Spanish America the grape culture was formerly much lim- 

 ited by the action of the mother country. Mexico exports already 

 from El Paso del Norte quite good wines to the surrounding 

 countries. Peru produces much of it. Those of Lucumba, Pisco, 

 Sucamba, and Arequipa are much valued. The wines of Chili 

 have some similarity with those of Alicante. She exports about 

 270,000 arohas to Buenos Ayres and Paraguay, and some 800 

 arobas to Peru. Near the city of Moqucgna, in South America, 

 a good deal of wine is made. It is mostly like that of Spain. It 

 is somewhat strange that they do not sell the wine by measure- 

 ment, but by weight. Fifty Uhras of wine (two arobas) cost from 

 eight to nine piastres. These wines are kept in goat-skins. The 

 use of barrels is nearly unknown. 



Eussia produces wines in her southern provinces. The wine 

 from the Crimea resembles somewhat the Hungarian. The best 

 of it is made about Sudak and Kos ; annually about 510,000 gal- 



* [This view of the \-ine culture of the United States was written some years 

 ago. Since that time it has vastly increased. — A. II.] 



