THE 



VINE-DRESSER'S 



THEORSTXCAL & PRACTXGAZ. MANUAL, 



&c. &c. 



CHAPTER I. 



HISTORY OF THE TTXE. 



The plant that bears the grape is one of those that has been for 

 many centuries under the closest cultivation. It was first dissemi- 

 nated over the earth by the Ethiopic colonies ; from the Ethiopians 

 the Arabians received it, and from the latter it passed into Judea. 

 Then following the coast of the Mediterranean it flourished in E- 

 gypt, Syria, the shores of Ionia, Greece, Spain and Italy. The above- 

 stated progression of the vine is drawn from the most authentic cir- 

 cumstantial evidence. 



All knowledge of the first application of the vine to its present ob- 

 ject is denied us ; of that, as of every useful invention necessary to our 

 actual comforts, we enjoy the benefits, without concerning ourselves 

 about the benefactor. If we must assign some probable period for the 

 discovery, we will place it as far back, as the very first cultivation 

 of the earth by tillage. The vine, in the very birth of society, must 

 have been an object of importance sufficient to fix the attention, and 

 arouse the industry of man. Mythology availed itself of this ignorance 

 of the first adoption of the vine, to give it a miraculous origin, and to 

 form fabulous accounts of the period, circumstances, and uses of the 

 discovery. 



We should like to be able to say who it was that introduced it into 

 France, and at what date. But those who have busied themselves 

 with the antiquities of Gaul, can only draw vague conjectures from 

 the contradictory accounts of Greek and Latin writers. According 



