188 AGRICULTURE OX THE RHINE. 



wards presents little variety in the style of cultivation. 

 The vines are kept low, and all rank shoots are pinched 

 off at various periods, that all the strength of the plant 

 may be left for the formation of the fruit. The vines, 

 planted with the care described some pages back, have 

 three stakes set, one near the stock, and two at two 

 feet distance on each side in the line of the meridian, that 

 is to say, in the line running from the top to the bottom of 

 the slope. The space between the rows is thus left free 

 for the rays of the sun to penetrate and to shine on three 

 sides of the bunch. Between the rows in well kept 

 grounds not a weed is to be seen, and the soil is turned 

 over with a two-pronged pickaxe, two feet deep at least, 

 three times, but often four or five times, in the course of 

 the summer. Cow-dung is exclusively applied in con- 

 siderable quantities every three years. 



At Rudesheim is a cellar, belonging to the Duke of 

 Nassau, at which the curious traveller late in the autumn 

 can see the pains that are taken in making the choicest 

 wines. Both red wine from the Ducal vineyard at Ass- 

 nianshausen and white Riidesheimer are made in this 

 cellar, the arrangements in which may serve as a model. 

 The grapes are allowed to hang at Assmanshausen until 

 they begin to shrink ; but not until they moulder, as is the 

 case with the white grapes. It is necessary to preserve 

 the colouring matter under the skin in order to dye the 

 wine red. In other respects the treatment is nearly the 

 same in both cases. The grapes after gathering are 

 trodden into a mash by men with great leathern boots, 

 and the vats are removed to Riidesheim, when the red 

 grapes are thrown on a wire grating laid upon the butts 

 into which they are to fall, and are separated from the 



