WINE. 



190 



tion with a vineyard established in Flanders; I only regret that I 

 have no means of presenting parallel observations from a countiy 

 more favorable to the vine. The vineyard of Schmalzberg was 

 planted in 1822, with new cuttings from France, and from the 

 borders of the Rhine. The vines are trained as espaliers, and are 

 now rather more than four feet in height. The vineyard began to 

 yield wine in 1825, and the following table shows the results in the 

 successive years up to 1837 : 



The mean quantity of wine furnished by this vineyard from the 

 date of its plantation, is 224^ gallons per acre. M. Villeneuve 

 reckons the mean produce of many vineyards in the southwest of 

 France at from about 146 to 192 gallons per acre, considerably less 

 consequently than our vineyard at Schmalzberg ; and official docu- 

 ments, while they give the mean produce of the vine for the whole 

 of France as 170.9 gallons per acre, state the whole of the wine 

 produced over the country at 976,906,414 gallons. 



From documents recently published, the whole produce of the 

 vineyards of the German States brought to market appears to be 

 59,180,000 gallons. 



Pulque. This is a vinous liquor, indigenous to Mexico and some 

 parts of Peru, and is prepared from the sap of the Agave Americana. 

 When this plant is about to flower, a hole is made into the upper 

 part of its stem, which by and by becomes filled with juice, and is 

 removed two or three times in the course of the twenty-four hours ; 

 this sap is very sweet, runs quickly into fermentation, and yields the 

 liquor called pulque. The flow of sap continues for two or three 

 moB :hs, and a single plant will yield from six to eight quarts per 

 day. In the neighborhood of a large town, which ensures a ready 

 sale for the produce, a plantation of Agave is one of the most pro- 

 fitable possessions ; in the neighborhood of Cholula there are singia 

 plantations which are worth from jG8,000 to jCl2,000. 



