POOS. 



ripen slowly ; alter maturity they retard the vintage, and cause 

 the grapes to rot. This delay of the vintage is more or less 

 in proportion as the rains are cold or of long continuance. 



-.>* ' '-'" *" 



Fogs. 



Fogs are injurious to the stock, flower, and fruit. Their 

 effects are to render the vines more sensible to frost as well in 

 spring as in autumn, and they have a tendency to advance the 

 coulure or blight of the blossoms at the former season, and to 

 retard the maturity of the fruit at the latter. The moisture 

 they deposit saturates the plant so completely, that it exposes 

 it to very great injury from heat arising from a sudden ap- 

 pearance of the sun. Most of the evils, however, which are 

 attributed to fogs, are produced by cold, without which they 

 would not exist, and fogs must therefore only be considered as 

 secondary agents in the evils they create. 



Droughts. 



If a superabundant humidity is injurious to vines, extreme* 

 droughts are not less so. When of a minor degree, a drought 

 prevents the leaves and fruit from being fully developed ; in its 

 greatest, it dries up the former and shrivels the latter, which 

 destroys all prospects of a crop, and produces, even in subse- 

 quent years, effects analogous to autumn frost. When these 

 excessive droughts happen at the period which precedes that 

 of the maturity of the fruit, the grapes become sooner coloured, 

 gain less in size, have a thicker skin, and juice less sweet, and 

 yield less wine, and that of a worse quality. These effects are 

 more or less felt according to the climate, soil, exposition, &c. 

 By planting the vines close, and by sheltering them from the 

 sun's heat by trees, hedges, &tc. these inconveniences could be 

 removed, but these means are repelled by the fact that weather 

 moderately hot and dry is that which best advances the good 

 quality of the produce of the vine, and that the injuries re- 

 sulting from such a course would more than counterbalance 



