Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/55

Rh An open exposure is also a point of capital importance,

A good vineyard is seldom found in a close valley, where the plant is exposed to the injurious effects of cold currents of air, or is endangered by sudden gusts of wind; if the bottom of the valley is the course of a river, the situation is still worse, because the fogs and exhalations have a tendency to produce a constant humidity, always hurtful in its effects.

Keeping these principles in view, the differences of opinion among agriculturists, on this point, may be in a great measure reconciled. Some disapprove of situations near a river, for vines, on account of the fogs and agueous [sic] exhalations it engenders—while others defend these situations, by asserting the superiority of the wines of the Rhone, the Garonne, the Marne, the Rhine, and many others.—The neighbourhood of a river is only dangerous where the hills rise precipitately from its banks. In every case, where the slope of the hill rises gradually, and forms an open and extensive valley, not shaded from the rays of the sun, and not liable to be enveloped in the fogs which frequently rise from the beds of rivers, their neighbourhood is, at least, indifferent.