14 Vineyard Culture. 



upon human thews and shoulders, for "packing" the manure 

 to the exhausted soil in baskets, or for transporting the abund- 

 ant vintage from the vines to the press ; horse-power must be 

 applied, as cheaper than man-power, for which there will be 

 found abundant need in the higher operations of the vine- 

 yard : therefore the abrupt declivities of our hill-sides will 

 be abandoned for the plains and gentle slopes and hill-tops.] 



It has been noticed that the neighborhood of rivers 

 exercises a beneficial influence upon the products of the 

 vine ; certain it is that the most celebrated vineyards 

 are almost all situated in the vicinity of large water- 

 courses. Tokay wine is made from grapes grown on 

 the Theiss ; the celebrated wines of PHermitage, Cote- 

 Rotie, and Condrieu, are grown on the hills which bor- 

 der the Rhone. The Garonne flows not far from the 

 best growths of the red and white wine of the grav- 

 elly districts extending from Langon to Bordeaux ; the 

 Gironde waters the far-famed vineyards of Margeaux, 

 Latour and Laffite ; the Dordogne is separated from 

 those of Saint Emilion only by the alluvial plains 

 stretched along its right bank. The Loire, the Marne 

 and the Seine, see, as it were, nothing but vines spread 

 over the whole extent of their course, and the famous 

 ridge which traverses Burgundy overlooks a plain wa- 

 tered by the Saone. It is true that the no less cele- 

 brated vineyards of Champagne and the Cote-d'Or 

 might be cited as exceptions. For this reason M. de 

 Gasparin attributes the superior quality of all these 

 growths to their location on hill-sides, and to their good 

 exposure, rather than to the vicinity of water-courses. 



[The influence exerted by rivers in favoring the products 

 of the vine, as cited by the author, is probably not merely 



