.EXPOSITION. 



towards evening to the oblique solar rays, which are almost pa- 

 rallel with the horizon, only an arid soil deprived of humidity ; 

 the sun also in such case by its position is enabled to penetrate to 

 the lower part of the vines, and darts its rays upon grapes 

 which are unprotected, heats and dries them, and ripens them 

 prematurely, stopping their growth before they have attained 

 their usual size, and before the proper period of their maturity 

 has arrived. 



Nothing can afford a more correct judgment of the influence 

 of exposition, than to view one's self the effects in a vineyard, 

 located on uneven ground, which is here and there planted 

 with trees ; in one place all exposures seem concentrated upon 

 a single point, and there are presented all the effects which 

 should result from it. The vines, shaded by the trees, push 

 out long thin shoots, that yield but little fruit, which only 

 attains a late and imperfect maturity. On the most elevated 

 part of the vineyard, which" is generally less covered, the vege- 

 tation is less vigorous, but the fruit is of better quality than in 

 the low bottoms. It is invariably on this part most exposed 

 to the sun, that we may meet with the finest grapes. 



Thiebaut de Berneaud remarks that an eastern aspect would 

 be preferable to all others, if it did not expose the plants during 

 the first warm days of spring, to be blasted by the burning 

 rays of the sun operating upon the small isicles, each of which 

 acts as a lens. A southern exposure (he continues) is generally 

 too hot in a warm climate, and a western one is least to be 

 desired, as the plant there receives a direct heat, after the 

 early hours of the day have abstracted the moisture, and there- 

 fore dries and burns it ; and he recommends as a general rule, 

 that in southern regions an eastern aspect should have the 

 preference, and in northern ones that a southern exposure 

 should be selected. 



A northern exposure has been generally regarded as the 

 worst for vineyards, from the consideration that the cold and 

 moist winds retard the maturity of the fruit, and that from 

 this cause it must remain sour, harsh, and devoid of sweet- 

 ness, and that the wine partaking of course of these qualities. 



