162 Memoir on the Vineyards and Wines 
follow with the first dressing. This is a pernicious sys- 
tem ; but the prejudices of the proprietors have not yet 
given way to the counsels of men of science. 
The vines are pruned at the same time with the first 
hoeing; but this method is not practised in the Marne 
district, where they prune subsequently to the hoeing : it 
frequently^ however; saves the primings from the effects 
of the frost; and presents a resource to the proprietor if 
the vines have suffered from this accident. 
Two other dressings are afterwards given; one in June 
and the^ other in August; but some proprietors; who are 
jealous of the good qualities of their vines, give them a 
third dressing in September. 
What are the Processes employed in gathering and press ^ 
ing the Produce of the Vintage f 
In order to make red wine,- — when the fruit is perfect- 
ly ripe, the black grapes only are carefully picked and 
gathered. The white grapes are laid aside, as well as 
those red ones which are not ripe; and these are after- 
wards made into wine of an inferior quality. The ripe 
red fruit, when thus separated, is put into panniers, or 
small wooden boxes called harillets or cavelets , and con- 
veyed on the backs of beasts of burden to the pressing 
place: here they are pressed by small portions at a time, 
and the juice then put into a tub to ferment. In perform- 
ing this operation some proprietors employ an utensil 
called a martyr, which is very useful. This is an oblong 
coffer, less than the diameter of the fermenting tub, and 
about a foot or eighteen inches high. This coffer rests 
upon beams placed across the fermenting-tub, and its 
bottom and sides are pierced with holes in such a man- 
ner as to allow the expressed juice of the grapes to flow 
through into the tub. 
