374 On a manner of training the Vine upon open Walls. 



deliberate observation, minutely and sedulously attended to, 

 that it alone owes its well earned reputation. 



The village of Thomery is situated in the Forest of Fon- 

 tainebleau, about a league from the palace, on the side of a 

 hill facing north and east, and washed at its foot by the River 

 Seine. The quality of its soil is inferior, in many parts 

 sterile ; it was formerly occupied by Vineyards, producing a 

 poor Vin de Pays, and has not been enclosed for the cultiva- 

 tion of table fruit until within these last forty years. At pre- 

 sent about six hundred acres are walled in for the purpose, in 

 numerous smairproperties and divisions. 



Walls and Treillage. 



The walls with which the Vignerons or Vine gardeners of 

 Thomery form their enclosures are generally about eight feet 

 high, built of clay, plastered on the outside with a cement 

 of lime and sand, and covered by a chaperon or coping pro- 

 jecting nine or ten inches on each side. To this coping they 

 attribute the good effects of protecting the wood and bloom 

 of the Vine from the late spring frosts and heavy rains, shel- 

 tering the Grape, accelerating its ripening and moderating 

 the luxuriance of the Vine. It in some degree shades the 

 shoots of the upper cordon or tier, but for that it fully com- 

 pensates by the protection it affords its fruit late in the 

 season, often preserving it in good condition on the wall until 

 after Christmas. 



The southern, western, and eastern exposures of these walls 

 when raised to that heighth, are in general furnished with five 

 tiers or cordons of Vines ; in very poor situations, where the 



