Page:A Treatise on the Culture of the Vine and, and the Art of Making Wine.pdf/74

 under which they might be ranked, would disappear when cultivated under the same circumstances with them. This knowledge, when obtained, was to be made the foundation of more extensive, and more useful experiments. He proposed to subject each species to a course of experiments, on soils of a different description; and when the soil, which each particularly affected, and the culture most suitable for it, were thus determined,—to ascertain the degree of fermentation which each species required; what description of wine would result from them separately; what combinations of them would yield a wine of superior goodness and durability; and finally, what species furnished the best brandy, and in the greatest quantity.

This was not merely a project, for its author had proceeded a certain length in forming such an establishment, but the aspect of the times was unfavourable: the revolution which was then breaking out, did not confine its ravages to the crowded city, but made its shock to be felt in the remotest village, and it numbered the Abbé Rozier among its victims.

Another attempt, on the same plan, was made by a different individual, but was carried to no greater length; and even the Society of Natural History of Bordeaux, failed in carrying into execution the same undertaking, of which they had