336 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OBAPE CUIiTTTEB, ^VINES AND WINE- 

 MAKING— No. 3. 



Botanic Gardens in France — Port Defences. 



There is no more striking evidence of the civi- 

 lization of the country than the public gardens, 

 commonly called Botanic Gardens, which belong 

 to nearly all the cities and large towns of France. 

 Here are collections of all the useful plants of the 

 country, with many curious and valuable ones 

 from foreign lands. These are usually cultivated 

 with great care. 



In the vineyard in the botanic garden at Bor- 

 deaux may be seen plots in which ai'e exhibited 

 all the modes of cultivation of the vine, practiced 

 in the south-west of France. Mr. Haraszthy com- 

 monly finds time to examine these gardens in all 

 the towns he visits. 



Here, also, among the many ships in the harbor, 

 he is touched by "the beautiful Star Spangled 

 Banner. In beholding the flag of my country, I 

 felt rush into my heart a thrill of pleasure and of 

 pride. Even without the flag, it was easy to rec- 

 ognize at once our American ships ; their high 

 masts, towering above the forests around them, 

 their sharp-cut bows, their finely-moulded lines, 

 pronounced them American." 



•'I saw, building in the harbor, two iron gun- 

 boats ; the steel plates were being put on ; they 

 were five inches thick. These boats are meant for 

 the protection of the harbor. They are anchm-ed 

 at the entrance, and defend its passage". Here is 

 evidently a forethought of a war with England or 

 Russia. 



At Bordeaux, a gentleman of the house de Suze, 

 a family which has been prospering in the wine 

 trade for four generations, conducted him through 

 all parts of their establishments, from the cooper's 

 shop to the cellars, in which he saw innumerable 

 rows of hogsheads, sometimes five or six tiers high, 

 and bottles by the hundred thousand. The cellar 

 of one house contained in hogsheads and bottles 

 not less than half a million of gallons. 



Casks for fine Cognacs, made of Russian oak, 

 which alone gives no unpleasant taste to the bran- 

 dy, cost about $4 each. 



In another establishment he saw the processes 

 of drying, preparing, and boxing prunes : the fin- 

 est in glass jars ; the second best in paper boxes ; 

 the third in tin boxes, round or square. The 

 House now employs 85 women and 12 men. Be- 

 fore the breaking out of the war in the United 

 States, it employed 280 women and 35 men. 



"Why do not we Californians," asks Mr. Harasz- 

 thy, "try this trade ? Our soil is much richer 

 than that of Europe, and the method of drying the 

 prunes is comparatively easy. We might, with 

 the greatest ease, furnish all America, North and 

 South." 



He next went out, eighteen miles, to the village 

 of Margaux, where the celebrated Chateau Mar- 

 gaux is made. He describes the process. When 

 the grapes are in the vats, "the fermentation lasts 

 from seven to ten days. Then the wine is taken 

 out." This is the true first quality wine. "The 

 residue is put into the press and pressed. This 

 forms the second quality wine." The remaining 

 mass is thrown into a fermenting tub, water is 

 poured upon it, aud after the fermentatian, the 

 product is the common wine which forms the 

 drink of the workmen. 



The Bordeaux wines are divided into four class- 

 es, according to excellence : — 1. Vins de Medocj 

 2. Vins de Gr^e ; 3. Vins des Cotes ; 4. Vins de 

 Palus. Of these, the best, the Medoc wines, are 

 produced principally from a grape called the Cab- 

 ernet-Sanvignon. The quality varies with the soil } 

 and wines of very different degrees of excellence 

 are often produced from different parts of the same 

 vineyard. 



The superior wines of the Medoc are of fire dif- 

 ferent qualities, the first of which consists of only 

 three wines : 



1. Chateau Margaux. 100 to 110 tuns— 4000 to 4400 gals, a year* 



2. Cliateau Lafitte...l20 to 150 tuns— 4800 to 5000 gals, a year. 



3. Chateau Latour. . . 70 to 90 tuns— 2800 to 3600 gals, a year. 



Of the vineyard of Chateau Margaux there are 

 200 aci-es, the whole of which was sold in 1836 to 

 M. Aguado for 1,300,000 francs, that is at about 

 $1300 an acre. The Langon vineyard of 100 acres, 

 which produces St. Julien wine, was sold in 1851 

 at the same rate. The vineyard of Monton, of 62 

 acres, was bought, in 1853, by M. Rothschild, for 

 1,125,000 francs, that is, at about $3600 an acre. 



£. 



SANDCRACK IN THE HORSE'S FOOT. 



We continue our brief sketches of the diseases 

 which afflict the horse when he is so unfortunate 

 as to have a hard or careless master, or when 

 he possesses them hereditarily, or contracts them 

 through unavoidable circumstances. 



Most horses — even the best of them, will not 

 continue to travel over the road at a rate of more 

 than Jive to seven miles an hour, when 30 or more 

 miles per day are required of them, unless they are 

 ■urged to it by the driver. They may be trained to 

 a more rapid movement, — but it will not be the 

 voluntary, natural movement of the animal. 



A good horse, with a light carriage and two per- 

 sons, will travel fifty miles per day, for several 

 days in succession, if permitted to take a five or 

 six-raile-an-hour jog, and allowed a reasonable 

 time for feed and rest. This will not hurt him» 

 and probably never induce one of the thousand 

 dire diseases with which the noble animal is so 

 often afflicted. But urge him over this distance 

 in half the time, and he becomes strained so as to 

 injure some of the delicate machinery with which 

 he propels himself, so as to lame him for life ; or 

 he is so heated as to be ruined by a mess of grain, 

 a drink of cold water, or a slight exposure to a 

 current of cold air. These risks are trifling un- 

 der a slow movement, but are greatly increased 

 under a rapid one. 



Rapid driving is, then, the chief cause of the 

 lameness and disease of most of our horses, and 

 of their swift decay and early death. Overload- 

 ing them is another cause, but not the chief one. 

 It often causes lameness and induces diseases, and 

 some of them of the most painful and disgusting 

 character, such for instance, as the glanders, — 

 but rapid driving is the fruitful source of lame- 

 ness and disease in the horse. 



Among these diseases, a common one is the 



