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CULTIVATION of the VINE. 



240 



ing tlie fouth or fouth-eaft, and at night be covered with 

 mats or frames thatched with ftraw, which fhould be fo 

 contrived as to be fet up to cover the fruit or let down at 

 pleaiure, 



A pretty good judgement may be formed of tlie good- 

 nefs or badnefs of your wine, and of a plentiful or thin 

 vintage, by the feafons of the year; if the fprlng and for- 

 mer part of the fummer prove generally dry, with now 

 and then moderate refreilfing rains, if the leafon in Auguft 

 and September be hot and dry, if in the month of June 

 the weatlier be calm, fcrene and dry, vv^hcn 

 blolTom, and the fruit is formuig, your crop or vintage 

 will be plentiful, and your wine rich and good: But if at 

 the time of bloffoming, the feafon be wet and ftormy, the 

 winds high and bluftering, if the fpring be cold with much 

 wet, and backward, if the latter part of fummer and fuH 

 be ftormy, raw and wet; your crop will be thin, and the 

 wine fmall and bad; when this happens, it will be neccf-- 

 firyand for your advantage, to boil one half of the muft> 

 and to manage it as I fliall hereafter direct you. 



As the wine made from black grapes has a diifercnt ma 



e vme is ni 



nagement from that made of white grapes, 1 {hall begin 

 with the white; thefe then muft be gathered as 1 mention- 

 ed before in a fair day, when the grapes are perfedly 

 dry; and both the rotten and unripe grapes being carefully 

 plucked off from every bunch, the cluflers are then thrown 



into the mafli vat, and two or three men, according to the 

 quantity, having waflicd their feet and legs very clean in 

 bran and water, get into the vat and trample and maili the 

 grapes thoroughly fo that none efcape, the more they are 

 trampled and maihed the better; about. Paris they let the 

 murk, that is the (kins, (lalks, muft and all ftand together 

 in the vat eight and forty hours and then prefs it ofF^ but 

 in other parts of France they prefs off as foon as the grapes 

 aremaflied: The laft method I fhould prefer, provided 

 the hulks be trod over again in the Portuguefe manner, 

 otherwife I fiaould prefer the firft method praftifed by the 



^ people 



