LETTERS FROM ABROAD.—NO. 2 . 
Ill 
direction make it a central point, and affords some 
of the pleasantest drives in the country. Its prox¬ 
imity to Elizabethtown, Springfield, North and 
South Orange, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, and 
many other places of note, makes it a very desirable 
location. A public square has been reserved in the 
centre of this village, which is intended to be im¬ 
proved and beautified. 
Among the most prominent residences, at Clin- 
tonville, is the one recently purchased by Mr. 
Bailey, of New York, who is enlarging and adorn¬ 
ing it with much taste, and the seats of Mr. 
Durand, Mr. Eadie, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Mann, Mr. 
Belcher, and others. Mr. Holyland, of New York, 
is building a very neat Gothic cottage on his farm 
at Camptown, on the east side of the creek. 
In short, Clintonville possesses many advantages, 
embracing three churches, three schools, besides 
an academy, several stores, well stocked with goods, 
a post office, with a daily mail, and stages running 
to Newark twice a day. Its mild climate, healthy 
location, excellent water, beautiful scenery, pleas¬ 
ant drives, and accessibility to New York, render 
it a very desirable situation to such as wish to com¬ 
bine a residence in the country with business in the 
city. J. M. 
Clintonville , N. J. March , 1848. 
LETTERS FROM ABROAD.—No. 2. 
Vintage Seem—Cultivation of the Grape. —For the 
last ten days, we have been slowly progressing on 
mule back over roads almost impassable, stopping 
here and there at the wine estates on the way. and 
w'atching with intense interest the operations of the 
vintage, and scenery beautiful in the extreme. 
The hill sides teemed with animation, by women, 
young girls, and boys, some of whom were gather¬ 
ing the rich clusters from their native stems; 
others were collecting them in large, high baskets 
or hampers, after the rotten and blighted fruit had 
been plucked off « and thrown away ; while long 
lines of hardy Galicians were bending under their 
burdens in carrying them down to the wine presses 
to be trodden and made into w T ine. The merry song 
of these laborers, as they kept time to their work, 
was heard to resound from valley to hill, and every 
mountain sent forth the same joyous strains. 
Varieties of Grape. —Of the vines most renowned 
for the production of wine, in the Upper Douro, 
there are only about a dozen varieties, the charac¬ 
ters of which may be noted as follows :— 
1 . Mourisco preto , a vigorous vine, bearing a very 
black grape, of early maturity, and producing a fair 
wine. 
2 . Museto preto, resembling the above, but not 
so early in maturing its fruit. 
3 . Touriga —fruit black, producing a highly 
colored wine. 
4. Tinta Francisca, having fruit resembling that 
of the Touriga, and is prized for its wine. 
5. Tinta da Minha —fruit black—wine of fair 
repute. 
6 . Pinto cdo ,—fruit dark-colored, producing a 
tolerably good wine, which improves with age. 
7. Bastardo —fruit dark, producing a good, light 
wine, slight!)*- colored, and of an agreeable, though 
peculiar flavor. 
8 . Donzelinho do castello —fruit dark, producing 
a delicate, slightly colored wine of high repute. 
9. Malvazia grossa— fruit large, white, and more 
valued for the table than for wine. 
10 . Malvazia fina —fruit white, smaller than 
that of the preceding, but of a more delicate flavor. 
11 . Muscatel —identical with the white Muscat 
of France. 
12 . Gouveio —fruit white, with a very sweet 
juice, and producing a wine of great renown. 
Soil and Aspect. —The soil best calculated to pro¬ 
duce the richest wines, let it be remembered, con¬ 
sists of the broken fragments of the reddish-brown 
limestone or clay slate, in which this region abounds; 
and experience has shown that the grapes are bet¬ 
ter flavored, when grown on the southern declivi¬ 
ties of the hills, or in low sheltered spots facing the 
south, wdiere the vines can receive the greatest 
heat from the sun; for those grown on the northerly 
sides of the mountains, or near their summits, are 
invariably watery, and produce a thinner and lighter 
wine. 
Propagation. —The vineyards in this country, it 
will be recollected, are formed, at great expense, in 
terraces cut in the sides of the hills, rising one 
above another from the margin of the Douro, to an 
elevation of several hundred feet. In autumn, 
after the vintage is over, and the soil of the terra¬ 
ces has been sufficiently pulverized or stirred, 
healthful and vigorous cuttings are taken from the 
old vines, from a foot to eighteen inches in length, 
and planted nearly in a horizontal position, with 
their butt ends covered with earth, where they are 
suffered to remain until they have taken root. In 
the summer of the following year, these cuttings, 
or young vines, are transplanted two feet deep in 
the ground, at a distance of about a yard apart: and 
in from four to six years, with proper attention, 
they arrive at full bearing. Sometimes, however, 
where there are intervals occurring, in consequence 
of the loss of a vine, two or more long shoots of 
the nearest stock are bent down into holes dug for 
the purpose of receiving them, and then covere 1 
with earth in such a manner as to leave their tips 
above the surface. These, in due time, take root', 
are separated from the parent stem, grow, and often 
bear fruit the next year. 
Management.— At the termination of the vin¬ 
tage, the vines are regularly pruned, by removing 
all the young shoots from the last year’s wood, ex¬ 
cept one to each branch, which latter is reserved for 
bearing fruit the following year—care being ob¬ 
served to get rid of all old wood that can be spared 
by shortening back to the spurs preceding from the 
main stem. After this, the ground is trenched be¬ 
tween the vines, incorporating the soil about their 
roots, together with the fallen leaves and fragments 
of the shoots ; and previous to the first of January, 
the soil is again stirred around the vines, one or 
more times, and all weeds, insects, etc., which may 
appear, are cut up or destroyed. By this treatment, 
the vines put forth their leaves, the grapes form and 
gradually swell to ripeness, with blooming hues, 
and but little more attention is required, till the 
long-wished vintage arrives. F. R. S. 
San Jodo da Pesquiera , ) 
Upper Douro , Sept. 27th, 1847. ] 
