CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 13 



bunch. According to Heutius, the vines in Crete and 

 Chios afforded clusters of from ten to forty pounds weight 

 each. A bunch of Syrian grapes, produced in a vinery at 

 Welbeck in England, weighed nineteen pounds. It was 

 sent as a present from the Duke of Portland to the Mar- 

 quis of Rockingham, and conveyed a distance of twenty 

 miles on a staff by four laborers, two of whom bore it in 

 rotation. 



That great attention was given to the culture of the vine 

 in the earliest ages is evident from the fact that Homer and 

 Herodotus make frequent mention of it, and that Theo- 

 phrastus and Dioscorides treat of it in several chapters. 

 Yet it was known to the Egyptians long before these times ; 

 representations of the careful culture of the vine, of the 

 treading-out of the juice, and of the storing of the wine 

 in jars, being all discovered in the paintings within their 

 tombs. A still stronger implication is found in the dream 

 of the chief butler, in Gen. xl. 9 : "In my dream, behold, a 

 vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches ; 

 and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot 

 forth ; and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. 

 And Pharaoh's cup was in iny hand ; and I took the grapes 

 and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup 

 into Pharaoh's hand." Probably, however, the vine was 



