GRAPES. 14S 



taught me, tliat in proportion as the glasi is white and Useful Instruc- 

 transparent, nay even carefully cleaned, the grapes are bene- tlonsforde- 

 fited ; and that next to the taking away the leaves from the ^nd^'gSg^^'' 

 walls which if left would prevent them from getting properly them the ad- 

 heated in the day time, the nailing the bunches themselves "vantages of 



y ' . 1 7. T J sunshine and 



close to the wall is advantageous in the highest degree. x^^ heat of a 



Many of your readers ffor I know on this business how wall, &c. 

 much we have to contend with prejudice,) Avill think that 

 my situation must have been remarkably suitable io the 

 ripening of grapes, but I can assure them that it is not 

 exactly the case, as my walls are almost within the city, 

 much cut by the east wind, and have but little afternoon 

 sun ; but what will best satisfy them will be the confession 

 that I could scarce at all ripen any on my Pergola or 

 Espalier frames, and that even flasks would not ripen well 

 some in that situation. 



It is a serious thing to advise new management io old 

 practitioners, but I can assure you that the success of this 

 conduct, practised in the very teeth of their reprobation, 

 was so complete, that I could have made wine of all my 

 grapes, and that I actually dried some under these clear 

 glasses nearly to raisins.— ^When all were full ripe I bagged 

 in paper the remainder, and on Christmas day I eat my 

 last bunches preserved by hanging them near the kitchen 

 lire in the bags I cut them off in ; while on the vines, in 

 October, two bunches remained quite unripe that I pur- 

 posely left at only two inches distant from the warmest 

 part of the wall sheltered by leaves. What led me to this 

 system of extreme exposure to light and heat, was the obser- 

 vation that I have often made both no the Rhine and in the 

 neighbourhood of the Sabine Hills, that those who would 

 have early grapes must even there give them plenty of sun- 

 shine : and on the Rhine we know that land iov vineyards 

 is exactly valued in the proportion in which it receives the 

 sun, a mode of valuing land that in many cases I think will 

 one day prevail every vyhere, particularly on the sides of 

 our poorer hills ; 'for near Hochheim and the vineyards of 

 Riefenstien, the highest and the lowest rented lands are 

 often on the same hill, while here they seek the northern 

 aspect to grow corn, forgetting the earlier products which 

 the south can afi'ord to the hand of industry, or rather 



having 



