STATURE OF THE VINE. 



189 



of it, and indeed none except in very backward 

 autumns, the owner cannot guess at the quantity 

 of juice which it might yield. The clusters or 

 bunches hang very thick, and each weighs from 

 half a pound to a pound. 



" The public papers having lately taken notice 

 of the prolific excellence of foreign Vines, num- 

 bering sometimes forty clusters on one shoot, I 

 was tempted to examine my neighbour's Vine, 

 and upon some vigorous shoots which had been 

 left with nine or ten eyes or germs, to fill up 

 vacant places, I reckoned above forty clusters. 

 This will serve to give you some idea of this 

 wonderful tree. At the height of one foot and 

 a half from the ground, the trunk is only eight 

 inches in circumference: below that pitch are 

 some irregular protuberances, which it would be 

 unfair to ground any calculations upon ; however, 

 not to keep back any thing which tends to inform- 

 ation, the circumferences, where these protuber- 

 ances are the fullest, I have measured, and find 

 to be thirteen inches. From this swollen part 

 issue some trifling shoots ; and belonging to it 

 are small stumps of other shoots, formerly cut 

 down, which seem to have occasioned the irre- 

 gularity here mentioned. Still lower, and within 

 an inch or two of the ground, the stem girts but 

 between nine or ten inches ; finally, close to the 

 ground are three or four divaricating branches of 

 a very moderate size, which furnish the wall with 

 somewhat more than a fourth of its foliage ; so 



