646 [ASSEIKM.;! 



must depend for the quality of your wine, the best of which is made' 

 between the thirty-third and fifty -first degrees of latitude. Cologne^ 

 in Germany, is the city farthest north, and the island of Cyprus the 

 most southern limit of the best wine regions. 



Wine made from grapes grown in the vicinity of the northern Ime,, 

 has a very small quantity of saccharine, and is consequently unplea- 

 sant; for example, the Moselle. Those grown in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of the southern boundary, contain a very large proportion of 

 sugar, and are deficient in the acid; consequently, the wine made 

 from them is sweet and sickish, such as the Malaga. They are mostly 

 dried in the sun and exported as raisins. 



The most delightful wines are those made from grapes grown in 

 the centre between the boundaries, as at Oporto and Bordeaux. 

 England, to be sure, has the same latitude in the southern portion of 

 it as some good wine districts, and would grow fine grapes were it 

 not for the humid clouds that always overhang it, causing mustiness 

 and mould; plainly showing that without the rays of the glorious 

 sun, you cannot grow fine grapes; therefore, let your aim be so to 

 plant as to reflect the rays of the sun constantly upon your 

 vine, root as well as branch. Side-hills having a southern ex- 

 posure, will be found the best. Copy after those who have devoted 

 the lives of generations to the cultivation of the vine; the inhabi- 

 tants of the country contiguous to the Rhine, the Appenines and 

 Hungary. You will there find terraces on steep side-hills, sustained 

 by walls, one above the other, hundreds of feet in extent, presenting 

 the most magnificent appearance that the eye of man ever beheld; 

 staircases of splendid grapes, on all varieties of soil, rich, dry, loamy, 

 calcareous, sandy, gravelly and even stony, no matter w^hat its na- 

 ture may be as long as it is dry. Nature does not abhor a vacuum 

 more than the vine does a wet soil. If you desire vines of great 

 luxuriance, and bearers of immense quantities of grapes, feed the 

 roots with bone earth, feathers, hair, charcoal dust and human or- 

 dure; but they will not make wine. If the latter be your object, 

 plant them in a loam, sandy, or calcareous soil, moderately enriched, 

 kept well pulverized, and annually dressed with their own leaves and 

 tendrils. 



In Italy, and other hot climates, the vines are encouraged to the 

 tops of the highest trees, from which they are carried to others plant- 

 ed in rows for the purpose, and thus hang in the most luxuriant fes- 

 toons imaginable, loaded with splendid grapes. The object is to 



