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us, but are confronted at the start by a host of conflicting opinions 

 held by vignerons coming from different countries and climates. The 

 simplest and quickest way out of the difficulty is to try to discover, 

 by more scientific means than our ancestors had at their disposal, what 

 are the rules we are to be guided by, and how they may be varied by 

 circumstances. It is impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules for 

 viticulture to say, as many people do, that any particular soil, 

 distance apart, kind of vine, &c., is the best for wine making. 

 We shall see that the same method of culture in two different localities 

 will give different results, different modes of culture in the same locality 

 will also give different results, and lastly, that in certain cases different 

 modes of culture in different localities may give the same result. 



The surrounding circumstances have more influence on the vine 

 than on most plants usually cultivated. Their effect is plainly 

 visible in the outward appearance of the plant, but manifests itself to 

 a far greater extent in the wine which is, on this account, a most vari- 

 able product. 



These surrounding circumstances are made up of several factors ; 

 it is of the greatest importance that the vigneron should know what 

 they are, in what manner they act, and in what way it is possible to 

 modify their effect by adopting a different system of culture, with 

 the object of obtaining a wine well suited to the requirements of 

 commerce, and at the same time of as high a degree of perfection as 

 possible; as between making a pretty good wine and a very good wine 

 lies all the difference between paying working expenses and making 

 handsome profits. 



In this chapter we shall examine what these different factors are 

 and in what way they act; in the following ones we shall see in what 

 way it is possible to modify their effect. These factors are climate, 

 soil, and variety. 



CLIMATE. 



Although the three factors enumerated above are all of great 

 importance, the climate is, without doubt, the most important one. 

 Its influence in rendering a certain mode of culture more suitable 

 than another is very considerable in fact, it is of such importance as 

 to be capable of rendering the profitable cultivation of the vine 

 impossible. There is, in other words, a climatic zone, outside of 

 which vine-growing will not pay. Fortunately, this zone is very 



