182 
On the Cultivation of the Vine, 
I. On Wine considered in regard to Climate, Soil , Ex- 
posure, Seasons, Culture, 8£c. 
1st, Climate .— All climates are not proper for the cul- 
tivation of the vine : if this plant seems to vegetate with 
vigour in the northern climates, it is certain that the fruit 
can never there acquire a sufficient degree of maturity ; 
and it is an invariable truth, that beyond the 50th degree 
of latitude the juice of the grape cannot experience that 
fermentation which converts it into an agreeable be- 
verage. 
The case with the vine in regard to climate is the same 
as with other vegetable productions. We find towards 
the north a vigorous vegetation, plants well nourished, 
and succulent ; while the south exhibits productions 
charged with aroma, resin, and volatile oil ; here every 
thing is converted into spirit, there every thing is employ- 
ed to produce strength. These characters, so striking in 
vegetation, occur in the phenomena of animalization ; 
where spirit and sensibility seem to be appendages of the 
southern climates, while strength seems to be the attri- 
bute of the inhabitant of the north. 
Travellers in England have observed that some of the 
insipid vegetables of Greenland acquire taste and smell 
in the gardens near London, lleynier found that the 
melilot, which has a strong penetrating smell in warm 
climates, retained none in Holland. Every body knows 
that the highly subtile poison of certain plants and ani- 
mals is successively blunted or extinguished in the indi- 
viduals reared in climates further towards the north. 
Sugar itself seems not to expand in a complete man- 
ner but in warm countries. The sugar-canes cultivated 
in our gardens furnish scarcely any saccharine princi- 
ple ; and grapes are sour, harsh, or insipid, beyond the 
50th degree of latitude. 
