Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/131

 yield fruit, possessing, in a high degree, the vinous principles; but it does not appear, that, in the climates most favourable for it, and where its dimensions are greatest, it ever naturally brings its fruits to that state of maturity, in which they would undergo the vinous fermentation. For the attainment of this object, it is necessary, in all cases, to reduce the size of the plants, and concentrate that sap, which would tend to the production and enlargement of the wood, to the perfecting of the fruit. This end cannot be obtained, even in the warmest climates of France, in a plant of greater height than four and a half feet, including the mother branches; and perhaps no cultivator, who is not regardless of the quality of his wine, should allow it to exceed this height. But even in countries, enjoying every advantage of climate, and vineyards, possessing the most suitable soil and situation, the cultivator sometimes finds it his interest, to confine its growth to the dimensions more common in less favourable climates. Thus in the best vineyards of Medoc, producing the claret wines, the vines do not exceed eighteen inches, or two feet, in height. The best vines of Sicily, (those of Mr. Wodehouse), are also of a dwarf size, and are confined to the production of four bunches each.

If the cuttings, which form a new plantation