CHAPTER I. 



HISTORY AXD CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VINE. 



rilHE apple tempted our first parents to their fall. 

 -*- So also Noah's vineyard brought shame to himself, 

 and a curse upon Ham; and untold evil has followed 

 in the train. Yet we cherish these best gifts of Mother 

 Earth, and acquit them of all complicity in guilt. The 

 vine is indigenous to Asia, and, as we see in the case of 

 Noah, was cultivated in the very infancy of our race. 

 Mention of the vine is constantly made in the Bible. 

 Canaan is called " a land of wheat and barley and vines." 

 It is a well-authenticated fact, that the vines and the 

 bunches of grapes in Palestine were of an almost in- 



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