impregnated, and presents, for fermentation, a liquor which is too fluid, and holding in solution too little saccharine matter to produce a strong good bodied wine.
The rains which fall at the moment of the flowering, are also to be dreaded, from their tendency to cause the running of the parts of fructification, and the imperfection of the fruit. But those genial showers, which fall when the fruit begins to enlarge, furnish to the plant the principal elements of its organization, and if heat follows to facilitate the elaboration of these elements, the grape can hardly fail to reach perfection. The most favourable weather for the grape, is that which gives an alternation of heat, and gentle showers.
High winds are always prejudicial to vines; they parch the stocks, the fruit, and the soil, and produce, especially on strong soils, a hard and compact crust at the surface, which prevents the free circulation of the air and water, and keeps an injurious dampness at the root.
The influence of fogs is, in many points of view, injurious to vines; besides the putrid miasm they too often deposit on the fruits of the field, they moisten the surface of the plant, without penetrating farther, and when struck by the rays of the sun, their evaporation is instantaneous. Such sudden changes are always prejudicial to plants,
