Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/65

Rh But, besides pruning the luxuriance of the plant, and preventing it from wasting its strength in large quantities of fruit and foliage, it is necessary, as happens in few other cases, that nutritious substances should be sparingly supplied to it. Manures which are so necessary to most plants, and especially to those cultivated for their farinaceous matter, are injurious here. It is true, they add to the vigour of vegetation, but they debase the quality of the wine. Accordingly, we find that, in some wine districts, the use of dung was prohibited by law. The reputation of the wine was considered public property. "By public decree," says Olivier de Serres, "the use of dung was forbid at Gaillac, lest it should hurt the character of their white wines with which they supplied their neighbours of Toulouse, Montauban,