Show FRENCH VINE CULTURE If you are critical you may now mark with a certain interest the different dif-ferent details of the vineyards on the right hand and the left in the Medoc country One growerfor example believes be-lieves in the idea that it is wise to set the rows tfrom east to west By this method it is averred the westerly storms are rendered as little hurtful as possible the extreme end planters bear the burden of the gales and suffer that the rest may thrive But the neighboring neighbor-ing grower thinks differently He has a fancy that the sun is the chief factor to be conciliated for success His plants may therefore take their chance of the Atlantic storms In fact the whole length of his vineyard lies to the west so that by a northand south arrangements of his plants these may get the most advantage from the direct penetration the suns rays among the leaves and fruit and twigs of the vines Looking more narrowly you may see that whereas one grower has for heating and precautionary pre-cautionary purposes practiced a partial par-tial flaying of his vine stems the other grower has done no such thing The latters knotted and gnarled old plants wear a sort of cuticle of moss and lichens in which his neighbor fancies with fair justificationthat disease may lurk The latter gentleman would no doubt jeer more than a little at M Sabates ingenious if grandmotherly notion of clasping the vine stem with a nice closefitcinpr metallic glove to warn off such parasites as love vine bark Yet conceivable ere long this fad to give it a hard name will be > put into force like many another that was scoffed at when first suggested Again the subjects of trimming and training offer scope for the significance of further diversity of opinion The one grower uses horizontal wires between wooden uprights and his plants have plainly been given to understand un-derstand that they must lie low But the others vines are of a much more exuberant quality they have grown a good four feet into the air and lusty shoots may be seen soaring high over the purple clusters Here Is no wire at all The plants are tied to wooden transverse pieces But a strong additional ad-ditional character touch is given to the latter vineyard by the tiresome barbedwire fence which keeps the pilgrim aloof both from the vines and the grape clusters which have fallen from the vines into the interjacent furrows The mind on this evidence alone will stigmatize the other as a i mean manChambers Journal |