"W^HAT SPECIES TO CULTIVATE. 37 



earlier as possible, if the season be favorable and the 

 ground is in proper order. Vineyards should never 

 be set out and planted in wet, slushy weather. 



■WHAT SPECIES OP GRAPEVINE SHALL WE CULTIVATE ? 



In Jiurope this question is, and has ever been a 

 much disputed point. The great mass of the vintners 

 foUow the traditions of their forefathers, and the vari- 

 ous governments as well as the societies for the im- 

 provement of wine have found it one of their most 

 insurmountable obstacles to overcome these traditional 

 predilections of the vintners. In Europe the govern- 

 ments have even gone so far as to prohibit by law the 

 planting of certain species of grape vines. These wine 

 " reformers" through government, have, however, not 

 always been right. And yet it would be wrong not 

 to admit that they have done much good. All of us 

 know how easily a theorist, who has made himself the 

 "Sir Oracle" of a neighborhood, may succeed in get- 

 ting his notions adopted by other theorists, and Europe 

 is not exempt from similar results. In 1832, when I 

 left Germany, the "Eiessling" was the fashionable and 

 much approved grape. Four years ago when I return- 

 ed, it was then the " Traminer," and in 1853, I heard 

 one of the very wine reformers say, " that he actually 



