Vineyard Culture. 



vation toward the south will be higher than toward 

 the north. Certain deep valleys, sheltered from the 

 cold winds, will admit of the cultivation of the vine, 

 although situated beyond the degree of latitude to which 

 it can usually be grown. Other regions, although sit- 

 uated within this limit, exposed to the cold and damp 

 winds of the north-west and west, will not admit of 

 the production of wine. The deep and sheltered val- 

 leys of the Moselle and Lower Rhine, on the 5ist de- 

 gree of latitude, produce excellent wines ; while in the 

 provinces of ancient Normandy, and the largest portion 

 of Brittany, much further south, the culture of the 

 vine had to be abandoned. 



[In applying these data as a guide to the selection of a site 

 for grape culture, in this country, we must bear in mind the 

 fact that equal latitudes are not blessed with a similar mean 

 temperature. Humboldt long ago observed a very great dif- 

 ference in the climates of countries that were equidistant 

 from the equator. His observations, and those of other 

 students of physical geography, have resulted in the establish- 

 ment of lines of equal temperature. These are called the 

 isothermal lines ; they are very curiously curved, and do not at 

 all coincide with the parallels of latitude. This is very man- 

 ifest in the maps that have been prepared, upon which the 

 lines are laid down. It will be observed that a given line 

 reaches much farther to the north on the Pacific than on the 

 Atlantic coast of this Continent, while in South America the 

 reverse is the case. In the interior of our Continent the lines 

 are deflected northward on account of the effects of the in- 

 terior basin, in which we reside, which is about one thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea. The line which passes through 

 Savannah, Ga., (N. Lat. 32), dips southward in its westward 

 course, skirting along the coast of Texas, and from the point 



