OF PROVENCE. 



101 



a property of his own, with a message to the fermier to 

 give me the different kinds I wanted. He observed that 

 he would have accompanied me himself, had he not been 

 very busy packing up a quantity of fruits which were 

 required to be sent off immediately. The whole of the 

 ground over which I went is cultivated like a garden. Jn 

 many places the vines are only planted along the edges 

 of the terraces, which are every where built to support 

 the soil. The caper is very generally cultivated in this 

 district. The fermier was not at home, but soon arrived. 

 He gave me cuttings of six new varieties, a dozen of each. 

 The vines are pruned, leaving on each shoot two buds, 

 exclusive of the one at the junction. These are the vines 

 which yield the grapes for drying ; there were from two 

 to three shoots on each vine pruned in this manner. The 

 Jermier said, that each vine produced from 8 to 12 

 bunches. According to M. Brest, the ground in this 

 district is all trenched to the depth of ^i- or 3 feet before 

 planting, but they do not put in the cutting the whole of 

 this depth. M. Negrel states, that it has been observed 

 that the roots come from the two buds nearest to the 

 surface only, and that the lower part of the cutting im- 

 parts to the remainder a portion of its decay. There is 

 a good deal of sweet wine made in this neighbourhood, 

 chiefly from a variety of the Muscat grape. The wines 

 of Provence^ or Bouches du Rhone, are not celebrated, 

 nor do they appear to be known as well as they deserve 

 to be. They have never furnished many choice wines for 

 commerce, but M. Negrel says many proprietors make 

 them of excellent quality, when they take some trouble to 

 have them good for their own consumption. I returned 

 after an excursion of an hour and a half to the house of 

 M. Brest, who pressed me to remain for the night, and 



