Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/63



—that a concurrence of so many favourable circumstances, with regard to soil, exposure, and seasons, is necessary to bring the grape to that degree of perfection which, with proper management, insures a good wine; the vine, in climates favourable for it, is a hardy plant.

Though the vines, which now cover a portion of Europe, came originally from the warmer climates of Asia, and spreading gradually through Greece and Italy, accompanied the blessings of civilization, and the amelioration of climate to the western states; the vine is indigenous in many parts of Europe, and in all the climates suited to its nature in both hemispheres in the new world. In Carolina and Florida, wild vines cover the ground in all directions, and are frequently an impediment to the traveller, by entangling his horse's feet in their branches, which in some places trail along the ground, and in others overtop the highest trees. In the wilds of New Holland, also, there is a kind of vine indigenous to the soil.

But, though the vine is thus the spontaneous production of nature, the art of man is requisite to bring it to perfection. Like other fruits and