191 



ON 



VINEYARDS. 



BOOK IV. 



A treatise on the Culture of the Vine would 

 be incomplete and deficient, was I to omit giving 

 some account of the formation and progress of a 

 vineyard ; and especially in a country of which a 

 part is within the vinous latitude. 3 



a The vinous latitude is said to extend between the 25th and 

 51st degree in the northern hemisphere. 



It is found, by experience, that all vineyards in Germany 

 situated within the 51st degree are cultivated with great ad- 

 vantage ; but beyond that limit their success is dubious. 



I must here beg to remark, that the climate is various in dif- 

 ferent countries, even under the same parallel of latitude. 

 Also, that the seasons are much more favourable in Germany, 

 Prussia, Poland, Hungary, &c. than under the same latitude in 

 the parallel parts of America. And, moreover, that the seasons 

 in Europe were much colder formerly than at present. A 

 celebrated author has thus accounted for this phenomenon. 



" Some ingenious writers * have suspected that Europe was 

 much colder formerly than it is at present ; and the most ancient 



* In particular ; Mr, Hume, the Abbe du Bos, and M. Pellon- 

 tier, Hist, des Celtes, torn. i. 



