276 THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE. 



(if I may use the term) of the grapes there grown, as 

 compared with the Muscats of our forcing-houses ; and, 

 when I tasted the Nice grape of Eaby Castle, of which 

 you were so good as to send me a sample, the idea oc- 

 curred to me, that the hardness of the pulp might be 

 owing to excessive manuring and forcing of the vine ; 

 and I thought of writing to you, to inquire if you were 

 aware of any facts, in the history of vegetation, that 

 would wan ant such conclusion. I may mention, too, 

 that this latter grape, though magnificent to the eye, 

 had, to my taste, a flavor different from the ordinary 

 JSTice kind, something like what the French call gmit de 

 terroir in wine. That this peculiarity may originate 

 from the foul manure that had been given to the vine, I 

 think highly probable ; and the following instance will 

 show how easily the flavor of the fruit may be affected by 

 substances less offensive than carrion. M. De Chassirou 

 has observed, that the wines of the Isles of Oleron and 

 E.e, are of bad quality, and retain the odor peculiar to 

 the sea-weeds with which the vineyards there are raa- 



large leaves. In forcing, " the vines broke slowly, but strong, and showed 

 scarcely any fruit," Here, also, is a strange statement; the vines, to do 

 this, must have received abundant nourishment ; and such a condition of 

 the roots, as before-mentioned by him, could not have furnished it. E. F. G. 

 did not go deep enough into the border; if he had, (and the vines were as 

 he stated,) ho then would have found, below all this mass of putrid matter, 

 the roots and rootlets which furnished the sap that produced these long 

 shoots and large leaves ; and tliese roots being so deep in the soil, is the 

 cause why the vines did not die from the effects of the manure, and is the 

 reason tliey did not fruit, the wood not ripening suCSciently. A small pai't 

 of this putrid matter, if it had been changed, as it should have been, in the 

 compost heap, and then applied as a top-dressing, would have enticed the 

 roots to the surface, and have Iwcii beneficial, instead of destroying thetn 

 as it did. 



