52 



ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



taste, which does not suit the European palate. Some two or three, 

 however, are cultivated ; and perhaps amongst these the Isabelle is 

 the greatest favourite, which yields a grateful wine remarkable for a 

 taste resembling that of raspberries. It was indeed proposed a few 

 years since to send over some well-informed person to the United 

 States, to examine on the spot the particular varieties which 

 afford the best American wines, some of which command a price 

 almost equal to that of Lafitte or Chateau Margout ; but, not- 

 withstanding their exemption from the mildew, it was thought 

 that the prospect of producing first-rate wine from them in 

 Europe was so small that it was not worth while making the ex- 

 periment. And there is the less reason for doing it, as the 

 Erench vine- dresser is now in a great measure master of the 

 disease, by a proper application of the sulphur treatment. He at 

 least, whatever may be the cause, has been too wise to follow the 

 example of Madeira, and root up his vines in despair. 



The circumstances under which vines are grown in England are 

 so different from those of the vineyard, that we can scarcely hope to 

 learn much from a consideration of the climatic conditions which 

 affect the vine-growers in Erance. He has greater extremes of 

 temperature to contend against ; the young shoots of his vines are 

 often cut off by severe frost, a circumstance which very rarely 

 happens to us even in open-air culture ; and, according to the 

 degree of moisture in the air, especially if there be a high state of 

 the hygrometer combined with a great degree of heat, his grapes 

 will mould and become useless. As in every other branch of 

 cultivation, where particular plants have been subjected to very 

 different modes of treatment and climate, the varieties are ex- 

 tremely numerous, and experience has shown which are best adapted 

 to the purposes of the cultivator. In our grape-culture, where the 

 number of varieties is more restricted, I have often thought that 

 sufficient attention is not paid to the selection of the kinds which 

 suit the situation best ; and in consequence where one never fails, 

 others are always complaining of some disaster or other, during 

 the whole period of growth, from the first pushing of the buds to 

 the gathering of the last gleaning- grapes. The mode of cultiva- 

 tion may be the same, but yet from local circumstances the result 

 may be very different. 



Nothing perhaps so greatly affects the quality of the produce 

 as the soil. Thence it is that the principal part of the nourish- 

 ment is derived ; and even supposing it to contain nothing dele- 

 terious, the necessary constituents will be taken up in such differ- 



