Vineyard

“ The vineyard of the late Miss Austin is yet in its prime, the evergreen trees and hedges being as inviting as in days of old. New vineyards which have not yet come into bearing are seen on every side, while in places whole orchards or single rows of trees have yielded to the axe to be replaced by the better-paying raisin-vines. ”

“ There is no country under the sun where a vineyard is more picturesque than here. If there [116] were an interminable perspective of green clothing and coloring all the hillsides, there would be no fitting border for the picture. But when there is not a fresh blade of grass by the wayside, and the tawny hills touch the yellow stubble-fields, we have a broad golden frame for some picture which ought to be worthy of it. And what more so than a sixty-acre vineyard, set within this mitred framework of mountains? ”

“ VIII. There be those who assert that the cost of maintaining a vineyard eats up the profit. What kind of vineyard? I ask. For there are several: in one the vines grow on the ground without props, as in Spain; in another, which is the kind common in Italy, the vines climb and are trained either separately on props or one with another on a trellis, which last is what is called marrying the vine. There are four kinds of trellis in use--made out of poles, of reeds, of ropes and of vines themselves, which are in use respectively in Falerum, in Arpinum, in Brundisium and in Mediolanum. ”

“ There too hath he a faithful vineyard planted, whereof the one part is being dried by the heat, a sunny plot on level ground, while other grapes men are gathering, and yet others they are treading in the wine-press. In the foremost row are unripe grapes that cast the blossom, and others there be that are growing black to vintaging. ”

“ Our garden was another Moorish wilderness, another "Field of the Slothful," thick in a waste of weeds, blue borage, and yellow marigolds. But it was also a vineyard. Dead-looking branches of vines trailed [161] among the weeds, which later on were cut down with a sickle and turned into green meat for cows. Splendid muscats, we were told, our vines would produce: branches are spread over them in the summer as a slight protection from the sun, but the grapes are left on the ground and often soiled; nor has a Moor the slightest idea of picking them, or of preserving their bloom. ”

“ Every well-kept vineyard ought to be as free from stones as possible, and therefore the peasants, when they weed, dig a trench about the vines, or prune them, always remove at the same [Pg 246] time whatever stones or flints they may meet with; these are piled at the end of the vineyard in a heap of about twenty feet square and six feet high, called a meurger.
On these meurgers the breezes of summer waft every description of seed, and they are consequently soon covered with verdure, shrubs, brambles, and wild roses, which from a distance give them the appearance of a small copse or thicket. ”

“ I do not know why the workers' shacks around the vineyard should remain idle practically all the time—there must be others in damp cellars in that crowded city who have become diseased, and who could be healed by the pure cold air up among my ancestral pines. ”

“ I visited, among others, the Le Franc vineyard, which dates from 1851, and is the pioneer in making wine-growing a regular industry. Here are about a hundred and seventy-five thousand vines, set out a thousand, perhaps, to the acre. The large, cheerful farm buildings are upon a gentle rise of ground above the area of vines, which is nearly level. An Alsacian foreman showed us through the wine-cellars. A servant-maid bustling about the yard was a thorough French peasant, only lacking the wooden shoes. ”

“ LIV. In vineyards the vintage should begin when the grape is ripe, but care must be taken with what kind of grapes and in what part of the vineyard you begin: for the early grapes and the mixed variety, which is called black, ripen some time before the others and should be gathered first, like the fruit grown on the side of the arbustum, or of the vineyard, which is exposed to the sun. ”

“ Even in a vineyard, situated with every advantage of exposure, nothing should be allowed to interrupt the direct action of the mid-day sun, which, of all causes contributing to the perfection of the grape, is certainly the most powerful. The practice of planting fruit trees in a vineyard, is hence disapproved of, though in some districts it is conceived that they are advantageous in protecting the vines from the effects of frost, and from this idea it is quite common to see the peach, the olive, the apple, and the walnut trees, planted in vineyards. ”

“ When a new vineyard is made, they plant the vines in gutters about four feet apart. As the vines advance, they lay them down. They put out new shoots, and fill all the intermediate space, till all trace of order is lost. They have ultimately about one foot square to each vine. They begin to yield good profit at five or six years old, and last one hundred, or one hundred and fifty years. A vigneron at Voulenay carried me into his vineyard, which was of about ten arpents. ”

“ That the vineyard, when properly planted and brought to perfection, was the most valuable part of the farm, seems to have been an undoubted maxim in the ancient agriculture, as it is in the modern, through all the wine countries. ”

“ Once we came to a vineyard where the ripe fruit still hung in purple clusters from the vines, and where men and women, some on foot and others on ladders, were gathering and filling with them large buckets and baskets. At the far end of the field white oxen, their great heads decorated with red ribbons, stood in waiting. Boys with buckets slung on long poles were coming [pg 38] and going between the vines. In all the other vineyards we had passed the vintage was over, so we waited to watch the peasants as, laughing and singing, they worked away. ”

“ Vines should be trained to the height of a man and the interval between the props should be sufficient to give room for a yoke of oxen to plough. The least expensive kind of a vineyard is that which brings wine to the jug without the aid of any sort of prop. There are two of this kind, one in which the earth serves as a bed for the grapes, as in many places in Asia, and where usually the foxes share the crop with man; [64] or, if mice appear, it is they who make the vintage, unless you put a mouse trap in every vine, as they do on the island of Pandataria. ”

“ A vineyard is busily tilthed and kept, and purged and cleaned of superfluities, and oft visited and overseen of the earth tilthers and keepers of vines, that it be not apaired neither destroyed with beasts, and is closed about with walls and with hedges, and a wait is there set in a high place to keep the vineyard that the fruit be not destroyed. And is left in winter without keeper or waiter, but in harvest time many come and haunt the vineyard. ”

“ A sort of fairy-tale is told of the totally wrong manner of planting the first vineyard; and still not even the example of the far better Constantia wine has induced men to make vineyards in rockier spots. ”

“ These phenomena, observable in all the products of vegetation, are peculiarly remarkable in the vine. A vine looking to the south, produces fruits which seem of a different nature from those of one looking northwards. Even in a vineyard, having everywhere the same exposure, the greater or less inclination of the surface has its effect in producing modifications in the quality of the wine, while the summit, the middle, and the base of a hill, furnish product's entirely different. ”

“ Any person who has seen a hop garden, may easily form an idea of the appearance of a vineyard. Vines are usually propagated by slips, cuttings, or offsets from the roots. These, when they have obtained a sufficiency of roots, are transplanted from the nursery-ground into the vineyard, the soil of which ought to be light and rich. ”

“ The handsome red and white buildings{203} which held the cuvier, the long line of stables and farm-buildings, the immense storehouses full of wine and wine barrels, were at their busiest, and on the slopes below the château the vintagers were working at top speed to finish by the end of the week. As we walked through the long vineyards by the river, the grapeless rows of vines looked forlorn and elderly, like mothers who have married off their daughters and have no occupation left. ”

“ To come to the Temple of the Holy Bottle we were to go through a large vineyard, in which were all sorts of vines, as the Falernian, Malvoisian, the Muscadine, those of Taige, Beaune, Mirevaux, Orleans, Picardent, Arbois, Coussi, Anjou, Grave, Corsica, Vierron, Nerac, and others. This vineyard was formerly planted by the good Bacchus, with so great a blessing that it yields leaves, flowers, and fruit all the year round, like the orange trees at Suraine. ”

“ The sandy soil will, in general, produce a delicate wine, the calcareous soil a spirituous wine, the decomposed granite a brisk wine.
When a soil is to be chosen for a vineyard, all cold, compact, and wet soils, and such as are easily hardened by the sun's rays, are to be avoided. If it is more profitable, or desirable, to obtain a large quantity of wine for the general consumption of a country, or for distillation, good rich soils may be resorted to; thus, on the banks of the Cher and Loire, in France, they not only cultivate the vine on rich soils, but even with the aid of manure. ”

“ When the husbandman had resolved on the formation of a new vineyard, he first, of course, encircled the spot with a hedge [1510] which was made both thick and strong for the purpose of repelling the flocks and herds, which, as well as goats, foxes, and soldiers, loved to prey upon the vine. [1511] His next care was to root up the hazel bush and the oleaster, the roots of the former being supposed to be inimical to the Dionysiac tree, while the oily bark of the latter rendered it peculiarly susceptible of taking fire, by which means vineyards would often appear to have been reduced to ashes. ”

“ WHEN the cultivator, having applied the principles of the first chapter, to the situation in which he finds himself placed, and having combined as many favourable circumstances as may be compatible with it, has fixed upon the site of his vineyard, it becomes his next care, to prepare the soil for the reception of the plants ”

“ Remember that the vineyard is to last for a lifetime or more, and that any careless work will ever be an eyesore and a drawback. Unsightly vineyards, carelessly staked out, are never worth as much as those carefully planted, where every row is straight, and where plowing, cultivating and other farming and vineyard work can be performed without meeting any obstacles in the way of crooked rows, or of vines standing out of line. Only too frequently vineyard rows are plowed out, and the cuttings are “slapped” in anyway in order to get the work quickly done. ”

“ Vineyards are laid out for the most part after accepted patterns for each of the great grape regions of America. The vines are always planted in rectangles, usually at a less distance apart in the rows than the rows are from each other, but sometimes in squares. Pride in appearance and convenience in vineyard operations make perfect alignment imperative. ”

“ The soil, which is of the customary calcareous formation, has a marked ruddy tinge, indicative of the presence of iron, to which the wine is in some degree indebted for its distinguishing characteristics—its delicacy, spirituousness, and pleasant bouquet. Vintagers were passing slowly in between the vines, and carts laden with grapes came rolling over the dusty roads. The mountain which rises behind the vineyards is scored up its sides and fringed with foliage at its summit, and a small stone bridge crosses the deep ravine formed by the swift-descending winter torrents. ”

“ These tops are renewed from time to time as occasion permits or demands, and any vineyard which has been bearing a number of years will nearly always have a few vines in process of renewal. The reader should not receive the impression, however, that the life or vitality of a vine is necessarily limited. ”

“ Many of the families in the lower or middle rank of life, have small vineyards, and make wine for their own use. A freehold vineyard, which costs two hundred francs, or about eight pounds sterling, produced wine, more than sufficient for a family of five persons, as we were informed by one of these little proprietors. They cultivate the vineyards themselves ”

“ During early spring much care and labour are devoted to the vineyards. The soil around each vine is drawn back with hoes and small adze-shaped spades, the blades of which are turned inwards, till the plant stands in the centre of a hollowed square, the heaped-up earth around serving to catch and direct the moisture towards its roots. For a time the vineyards resemble huge chess-boards, till in April the spreading tendrils and bright green leaves once more hide the face of the earth from view. ”

“ It was with great dificulty that some (and not as yet all) of them were persuaded not long ago to graft their vines and by this means bring all the fruit of a vineyard to be of one sort, tho before the vine which it producd had been spoild by different sorts of bad ones which were nevertheless sufferd to grow, and taken as much care of as the best, because they added to the quantity of the wine. ”

“ Layering to fill vacancies in the vineyard.
There is sure to be an occasional gap even in the best vineyard. Young plants set in vacancies must compete with neighboring full-grown vines, and often in a bit of land so unfavorable that it may have been the cause of the demise of the original occupant. ”