110 



VINEYARDS OF HERMITAGE. 



flavour, the proprietor said, that without frequent and 

 strong manuring the vines would scarcely yield any thing ; 

 and that provided horse or sheep dung only were used, 

 there was no danger of its giving the wine a bad flavour, 

 though the contrary was the case if the dung of cows, and 

 still more that of pigs, were made use of. M. IMachon 

 gave me 12 cuttings, the number I requested, of each of the 

 three varieties of vines. He strictly charged the vigneron 

 to select them from young vines ; he said it was with 

 the greatest difficulty they could get the vines to last 30 

 years, and they would not last more than half of that time, 

 if they were not taken from young vines, that is, from 

 vines of five or six years. The vines of Hermitage are 

 planted at the distance of only 2y feet from each other, 

 and are pruned differently from any I have before observed. 

 They are not anxious to keep the stocks low, as in the 

 south, but many of the older among them are 18 inches, 

 or two feet in height. In general there is only one mother 

 branch, and one shoot only (very seldom two) is pruned 

 to yield the shoots of the season ; on this shoot are 

 left from 3 to 8 buds, according to its strength, and 

 from 8 to 10 bunches is the average produce of eacli 

 vine. However loosely the bearing wood of the season 

 appeared to be tied up in a tuft at the top of the stake, 

 M. Machon showed me that the portion which had been 

 left of the last year's wood was carefully bent down in a 

 circular form, and thus fixed to the stake. This, he said, 

 was to prevent the sap from shooting up with too great 

 force to the top. The average produce of M. Machon's 

 vineyards is from 10 to 12 casks, of about 50 gallons per 

 hectare; that is, from 210 to 260 gallons per English 

 acre. The soil appeared to be of great depth, and full of 

 small stones and gravel, but still there was every where 



