HISTOKT OF THE GEAfE VINE. • XV 



nutritive and agreeable food, consisting chiefly of sugar 

 and mucilage. The chemical process of fermentation 

 converts the sugar into spirit ; converts food into poison. 



" It has been observed, that all the vineyards in Ger- 

 many, beyond the 51st degree of latitude, are dubious." 

 — Phillips's Companion to the Orchard. London, new 

 ed. 1831. 



" Pliny states that the vines in Italy would climb to 

 the very top and even out-top the higliest poplars ; on 

 ■which account the grape-gatherers, in time of vintage, 

 put a clause in the covenant of their bargains when they 

 were hired, that, in case their foot should slip and their 

 necks be broken, their masters should give orders for 

 their funeral fire and tomb at their own expense. 



" Ancient naturalists and modern travelers agree in 

 their accounts of the long life and immense size to which 

 the vine attains in its wild state. Statues have been 

 carved from its wood, pillars have be^n made from it, 

 and the large doors of the cathedral of Ravenna are also 

 made from this wood. Large tables have been made of 

 a single plank. Pliny gives an account of a vine six 

 hundred years old." — Chaptal, p. 142. 



'.' Miller says, of the vines in Italy, that, in some parts 

 of that country, a vine is considered young at one hun- 

 dred years, and that there are plants in existence which 

 have been cultivated three hundred years." — Chaptal. 



" The Burgundy wine has been celebrated for its supt>- 

 rior quality certainly as far back as the 13th century, 



