10? APPENDIX. 



his grapes just so as he did in Crermany.'* His vineyard is 



on the top and sides of a high hill, descending both to the 

 north and south. He trenched his ground, throwing up the 

 earth from each side, making beds fifteen feet wide, with deep 

 trenches on each side, and the trenches having a quick descent 

 for water down the hill, north and south. On these ridges he 

 planted three rows of grapes. The consequence was, that no 

 water lay on the surface, or had time to saturate the clay 

 beneath, but speedily passed into the trenches, and from 

 them rapidly down the hill. On inquiry, I learned the part 

 of Germany he came from had a subsoil of stiff clay, in con- 

 sequence of which all their vineyards were graded in like 

 manner. Nine-tenths of our "swoabs," in all their business 

 and pursuits in life, must do it **just so as they did it in 

 Germany," without any change for soil or chmate ; and the 

 result is not alw^ays as favorable as it was with my tenant. 



But I would not be understood as saying, that other causes 

 may not also operate more or less in causing the rot. One 

 reason for believing that other causes may operate is, that 

 previous to the last six or eight years, we had much less of 

 the rot, yet our soil was then the same, and our rains as fre- 

 quent and heavy. But the rot should not discourage us. 

 After losing two-thirds of their crops, my tenants, the past 

 season, made upward of nine thousand gallons of wine, and 

 most vineyards escaped much better than mine, and many 

 had no rot Avhatever. 



In Germany, our vine-dressers assure us, the crop is not 

 more certain than with us, though they are but little troubled 

 with the rot. Their seasons are much shorter than ours, and 

 their crops are often destroyed by their early frosts. My 

 wine-cooper informs me that before he left France, they had 

 lost four crops in succession, and many of the poor, owning 

 small vineyards, had cut them up, and planted vegetables in 

 their place. I am informed, by intelligent Germans, that the 

 same would be done in Germany, if the poor vine-dressera 



