Mintage. 327 



districts, but it has lately been abolished in some, as 

 affecting the liberty of the individual without any real 

 benefit to the country. These vintage ordinances take 

 away every excuse for robbery, but they have great 

 drawbacks, especially in districts where the vine is cul- 

 tivated on a small scale. The red growths, for in- 

 stance, ripen sooner than the white ; young and vigor- 

 ous vines, and vines recently manured, ripen later than 

 old vines, and such as grow in poor soils. Grapes of 

 the same kind will often be seen rotting in the low 

 grounds when they are not yet ripe on the hill-sides. 

 It is thus impossible to satisfy all demands, and it is 

 sometimes difficult to silence some great private inter- 

 ests in the presence of the less eloquent ones of the 

 mass of small growers. 



When the vintage time has arrived, a succession of 

 fine days must be taken advantage of, and the work 

 should not be begun until after the sun has evaporated 

 the dew. The bunches have then lost their supera- 

 bundant moisture, and the wine will be of superior 

 quality. 



In vineyards where the quality of the wine is an es- 

 pecial object, the vintage is made at two or three differ- 

 ent times. At the first operation, tfre finest and ripest 

 bunches are collected, and from these a first-class wine 

 is obtained ; another gathering gives a wine of second 

 quality, and lastly, the inferior bunches are collected, 

 and yield a wine of third quality. 



RECEPTACLES EMPLOYED IN MAKING THE VINT- 

 AGE. There are two kinds of receptacles required in 

 collecting and transporting the vintage. 



1st. 'Vintagers' Baskets and Buckets. These receptacles 



