EXPOSITION. 



49 



tion is generally true in relation to northern climates, but there 

 are, nevertheless, a great many vineyards in plains, or on 

 lands almost level in every country which possesses vineyards. 

 The districts of St. Denis and Sandillon, department of 

 Loiret, and those which yield the finest Orleans wines, are 

 plain lands. Medoc, in the department of Gironde, is en- 

 tirely a champaign country, and there we know are situated 

 the famed vineyards of Lafitte, Chateau-Margaux, Larose, 

 Leoville, Branc-Mouton, &c. the wines of which are high 

 flavoured, pure, smooth, velvetty, full of body and spirit, with 

 flavour resembling that of the violet or the raspberry. The 

 same remark will apply to a great number of the wines of 

 Languedoc, to the well known vineyards of Tpnnere, to 

 Chablis, in the department of L'Yonne, the banks of the 

 Rhone, and to those of the department of Charente-inferieure : 

 in Burgundy there are also several excellent vineyards that 

 are similarly situated. 



In cold latitudes it is requisite to plant vineyards as distant 

 as possible from woods and water, as both these render the 

 atmosphere more cool. It is in cold climates particularly that 

 a dry soil is to be preferred to a moist one, in cases where 

 the quality of the produce is of particular importance. In 

 hot climates the vine yields abundantly without much care, but 

 in northern latitudes it requires skill to accomplish the desired 

 end. 



Vineyards may be cultivated with success on mountains in 

 a country where the natural climate of the plains and in the 

 valleys would not admit of it. The more elevated the moun- 

 tain, the more the temperature is diminished. Vines therefore 

 planted on those in hot countries that are very high, find 

 themselves in a similar climate to those planted in the plains 

 and vallies of temperate and cold latitudes. It is from this 

 circumstance that the vine is cultivated in Abyssinia, on Mount 

 Lebanon, on the high table lands of Mexico, and the Cordil- 

 leras on the route from Buenos Ayres to Chili, when it will 

 not succeed in Sennaar and other places similarly situated. 



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