On the Cultivation of the Vine. 109 



and the fruit, notwithstanding it may have a promising ap- 

 pearance, will prove watery and insipid. 



A dry atmosphere produces effects the reverse of these, 

 the growth here is slower, the wood is of a more compact 

 texture, and the fruit, when it arrives at maturity, attains a 

 rich saccharine flavour. 



The flavour of fruit seems, therefore, to depend, in great 

 measure, on the quantity of water daily evaporated from 

 the leaves. Hence the superior strength of the wines made 

 in the warm dry province of La Mancha, in Spain, when 

 compared with those of Portugal. It is from this cause also, 

 that Vines growing on the sides of mountains, in the south 

 of Europe, where they experience more ventilation, yield 

 richer Grapes, and make better wine, than when cultivated 

 in the neighbouring valleys ; in the latter situation, however, 

 they experience greater warmth, and the fruit arrives sooner 

 at maturity. 



The experienced Horticulturist in this country knows that 

 every kind of fruit which is sufficiently hardy to succeed in 

 the open air, on standard trees, as Apples, Pears, Apricots, 

 Plums, and Cherries, is of inferior size, but much better 

 flavoured, than when trained to a wall, owing to the more 

 perfect exposure of the leaves and fruit to the effects of 

 light and ventilation. I have reason to think that the injury 

 which some varieties of Grapes, habitants of warm dry coun- 

 tries, sustain in our hot-houses, during a continuance of 

 damp and cool cloudy weather, is owing to the accumula- 

 tion of water in the vessels of the leaves and green fruit ; 

 for I have frequently remarked, that an increase of ventila- 

 tion during such a state of the atmosphere, will often pre- 



