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vrhich are very fatal. The ground lymg in swales, or at tiie base oi 

 rising grounds, has also its inconveniences ; the soil is naturally con- 

 tinually saturated with humidity ; and the air is loaded with damp. 

 The skirts of hills when not too sudden in descent, and slopes gra- 

 dually sweUing from a plain, are the true positions for the Vine. 



Good stocks are rarely to be found in narrow vales, ravines, or 

 dells, through which a stream of water flows, on account o£ the winds 

 and currents of cold air daily prevalent in such places ; and the 

 fog-damp and mists incessantly maintained by the evaporation. But 

 we must not, from this fact, conclude that no good Vine can be raised 

 beside rimning water : as some agriculturists believe. A stream 

 adjacent is dangerous only, when tlie slopes that verge to it are not 

 open and free to the solar action. The wines of the Rhone, Gi- 

 ronde and Marne witness to this fact. 



The direct action of the sun is one essential. It is this powerful 

 agency alone, that can mature the high quahties of the grape ; 

 every tree therefore that may interpose a shade and exhaust the soil 

 should be cleared away. In some places, where frosts are apt to 

 fall upon the Vines, a custom prevails of planting the Vineyards with 

 trees, such as the peach, apple, ohve, nut, cherry, Sec. which is wrong, 

 though we may mention by the way the year 1797, in which every 

 stock in the departments of L* Yonne and Cote-d Or, that wa^ not 

 gheltered by trees, was frozen. The principle, notwithstanding this 

 anomaly, is rigorously exact ; if we are anxious that the grapo should 

 attain its full ripeness and saccharine properties, on which its value 

 and utihty depend. Large plants deduct both light and heat £rom 

 the Viae ; the least hurtful axe the peach, almond and ohve txees. 



It sometimes happens in very superior vine-grounds, that in some 

 of the most suitable situations for the Vine, there are spots where 

 wines of a very poor quahty are gathered close beside those of the best. 

 Such, for instance, is the small Vineyard of Mant Rochet, (dept. 

 Cote d'Or:) it is distinguished by three divisions, separated from 

 each other only by a narrow path, and termed, Canton de l Ainc, 

 Canton- Che vaher, Canton-Batard. Though the exposure of all is en 

 tirely the same ;. though the nature of the soil, at least, as for the lay- 

 ers next to the surface, is also tlie same in all ; and that the stocks, all 

 of the same species, receive the same tillage and culture ; and the 

 grapes are subjected to the same processes of fabrication ; still it is 

 an undeniable fact, that the wine of Mont Rachet-Aine, possesses 

 every requisite of a finished wine; having body, much spirit and 

 heighth, a very pleasant nutty taste, acd especially a fine zest and a 



