{HE VINE AND CIVILISATION. Ge 
less than 50 hectolitres. Examples of two hundred are on 
record: an incredible quantity. Reckoning the hectare at two 
acres and a half, and the hectolitre at twenty-six gallons, this 
amounts to upwards of twenty-one hundred gallons for the 
acre of land. On the other hand, the produce of the fine 
wines of Burgundy is only ten or twelve hectolitres, or 110 to 
130 gallons per acre. 
He who has a good cellar well filled cannot too soon make 
himself acquainted with its management, and with the history 
of that beverage which, used in due moderation, may be reck- 
oned among the most precious gifts of heaven to the temperate 
and rational man. Fine wines should be kept in cellars where 
no motion can affect them, far from vibration or trembling of 
the earth, or from traffic over granite pavements. They should 
be as far removed from sewers, and the air of courts, where 
trades of a bad odour are carried on, as possible. No vinegar 
must be kept in a wine cellar, and the temperature ought to be 
unchanged throughout the year. The choice of wine is a very 
difficult task, especially for the uninitiated. The difficulty is 
twofold; in the first place, no two persons have the same ideas 
of the flavour of any particular wine; secondly, the wines of 
the same vineyard differ in different years. The first object 
to be attained in choosing good wine is its purity. Whatever 
be the country from whence it comes, whatever the class, if it 
be adulterated with anything foreign to its own growth, it 
ought not to be selected. The higher classes of wine should 
be transported to the purchaser with great care. The best 
season for removing the more delicate wines of every kind is 
the spring and autumn, when the weather is temperate. 
A great object in the preservation of wine in the cellar is to 
keep the bouquet as long as possible, with that agreeable 
aroma which marks the highest class of wines, and chiefly 
