Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/26

 to cultivate for their common advantage, what had fallen to them in equal right. Its extent was 40 journeaux of Cadillac, which is equal to about 27 and one-third English acres. The buildings on it could sot much exceed £100 in value. The price demanded was 45,000 francs, 40.000 had been offered. The medium price 42,500, or £1770 16s. sterling, is £65, or, allowing £100 for buildings, £62 an English acre nearly. At this price, one of the best judges of the country, the mayor of Cadillac, affirmed, that if the purchaser possessed skill and capital to do it justice, it ought to repay him his purchase money in six years, though by that time it could hardly be brought to the high state of cultivation in which it was kept by the father of the present proprietors

Cadillac is not famous for the quality of its wines, but on the opposite side of the river, Sauterne, Barsac, and Preignac, produce the famous white wines which go by their names; and here, as might be expected, the first soils reach a still higher value. The Journal of Barsac contains only a very small fraction more than half an English acre, and yet it cannot be purchased for less than 2,000 francs, or £160 an English acre.

Conversing, one day, with a considerable proprietor, on the value of vineyards, the compiler was informed by him, that on one occasion he had sold the produce of a