WINTER PROTECTION OF VINES. 299 



duties required, and will also cause a saving of the expense 

 .of one family, which in France is generally intermediate 

 between the owner of the vineyard and those who labour 

 in it* 



Winter protection of vines. 



The considerations attending protection against the ri j 

 gors of winter will be necessarily much varied according to 

 the varieties under culture. Our native varieties so far as 

 they have been tested, need no provisional care on this point; 

 nevertheless some attention to it may be required hereafter by 

 a part of the vines latterly introduced from our extreme southern 

 limits, and from the province of Texas. At present however, 

 we have only to consider the relative hardihood of foreign va- 

 rieties, as they alone necessarily claim our attention at this time. 

 Many of these will support our severest winters, others need 

 particular care, or they perish partially or totally. But this 

 necessity for protection varies according to the section of the 

 union in which the vines are located. Too much discrimina- 

 tion cannot be exercised in selecting judiciously the kinds to 

 compose the vineyard, a subject which has been already dis- 

 cussed ; and after all my own experiments I have come to this 

 conclusion, that to establish vineyards of the most profitable 

 description, with a certainty of regular crops in localities north 

 of the highlands in this state, native varieties alone should be 

 selected; and the whole of the eastern states will of course 

 be comprised in this remark ; for although vineyards of 

 foreign vines may prosper, the annual product and consequent 

 profit, and above all the certainty and regularity of crops 

 would be much less. 



Foreign vines from Germany, and from the northern and 

 middle departments of France, support the winters of this 

 latitude after attaining two year's growth, and so do many of 

 the varieties from more southern climes, after attaining four and 

 five year's growth, while manyof the latter, particularly those 

 from the Mediterranean, perish almost totally by its effects. 

 But even the most hardy kinds, it is necessary or preferable 



