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young’s TRAVELS TN FRANCE.

614

being fo bad, he fays, it is owing merely to bad management in making. They treadthe grapes with their feet; and will keep it fermenting there even fo long as fifteen days,adding every day more and more, till the ftrength is exhaufted, and the wine fpoiled;no cleanhnefs in any part of the operation, nor the leafl attention in the gathering, orin the choice of the grapes. He further added, that Sig. Modena, a Vicentino Culti-vator at Vancimuglio adjoining the rice-grounds, and confequently as little adapted as pof-fible to vineyards, provided the foil and trees were the caufe of bad wines, makes thatwhich is excellent, and which fell for fo high as 30 f French per bottle: that Sig.Marzari, and Sig. il Conte di Porto, in the high Vicentino, with many others, as wellas he himfelf, Abbate Fortis, has done the fame with raifms from vines that run upthe higheft trees, fuch wine as fells from 20f. to 35/. French the bottle : and that fomeof thefe wines are fo good, that the Venetian ambaffadors, at different courts, ufethem inftead of Madeira, &c.; and the wines of Friuli as thofe of Hungary , which theyrefemble ; yet thefe vines are all on trees. He alfo obferved, that it has been found, byexperiment, that vines in thefe rich lands, trained near the ground, as in France , haveyielded raifins and wine .good for nothing; that the grapes even rot; that the land istoo rich for the vines to have all the nourishment, unrivalled by the root of the trees.It is very much to be queftioned, if the experiments here alluded to have been madewith due attention : if the land is too rich for vines, plant them upon foils that are pro-per ; and keep thefe low diflriCts for grafs and corn; but that vines, hidden from thefun amongft the branches of trees, can ripen properly to give a well-conco&ed juice, ap-pears very dubious; and the fa£t of all the wine, commonly met with in this country,being bad, feems to confirm the reafoning.

Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna .—All this country, where I have viewed it, islined into rows of trees for vines, ten or twelve yards afunder on the mountain, but morein the plain. But Sig. Bignami has his vineyard planted with echalats poles), in theFrench way, about four or five feet fquare, and he finds that thefe always give betterwine than the vines trained to trees, and the land by tormtura gives a great deal morewine, though each vine feparately on trees gives more than each in this method. Theobjeft in this inftance was the goodnefs of wine; Sig. Bignami thinks the common me-thod moft profitable. The vines are now (November) trained and pruned, and turneddown five or fix feet and tied; if allowed to mount, they yield much fewer grapes. Vineson the mountains yield thrice the value of the wheat, and the double of all other pro-ductions, wheat included.

Tuscany . —Bologna to Florence .—Vines in this route are planted differently from anyI have yet leen. Some are in efpaliers, drawn thinly acrofs the fields; others are trainedto i'mall pofts, through which at top are two or three flicks fixed to hold them up;others are in fquares of five or fix feet, and fix or feven high, without fuch polls; butall in the arable fields are, generally fpeaking, in lines..

Florence .—I here met with a cafe abfolutely in point to prove how mifehievous treesare to corn, even in this hot climate. A field under olives, which yielded in corn fix anda hall for one fown, was grubbed, after which the common produce was fourteen forone. Now, as the olive is by no means one of the worft trees for corn, this fhews thegreat lofs that accrues from the pra&ices I have noted throughout Lombardy . Yet incommon converfation here as elfewhere, they tell you the injury is fmall, except fromwalnuts, which do more ntifehief than any other.

Modena.— -It appears to be a fingular circumflance, that in the parts of this territory,near the hills, corn pays better than wine, but in the plain, wine better than corn: IfufpeCl that fome mifmanagement occafions this apparent contradiction. From Modena• to