Author's Preface. 



and experience, and should therefore be regarded with con- 

 sideration, but it can not be claimed that the management has 

 reached its highest degree of perfection, nor that it may not 

 be much benefited by the sciences which have made such 

 valuable advances during the last half century. 



These considerations have induced me to believe that the 

 time has arrived when we should bring to the vineyard all the 

 improvements that are adapted to its management. These 

 are the objects that we have endeavored to attain in the book 

 we now offer to the public ; which is, indeed, simply the re- 

 production of the lessons upon this important subject which 

 have been presented at the School of Arts and Trades, and in 

 the several Departments of France where the lectures were 

 repeated. 



We shall successively examine the various operations of 

 vine culture, and shall endeavor to modify them in the fol- 

 lowing particulars : 



1st. The substitution of the plow for manual labor. 



2d. The use of wire trellises instead of stakes. 



3d. Shelter from inclement weather. 



The various processes of cultivation being modified as much 

 as possible, we shall make the application to each of our 

 principal vineyards in the different regions into which we 

 have been called during the ten years of our traveling 

 instruction. 



