instance, a wretched glass and plaster shelter, 9 ft. 10 in. long by 612 ft. wide, resting against our cottage, gave us about fifty pounds of grapes of an exquisite taste in October, for nine consecutive years. The crop came from a Hamburg vine-stalk, six years old. And the shelter was so bad that the rain came through. At night the temperature was always that of outside. It was evidently not heated, for that would be as useless as to heat the street! And the cares to be given were: pruning the vine half an hour every year; and bringing a wheelbarrowful of manure, which is thrown over the stalk of the vine, planted in red clay outside the shelter.
On the other hand, if we estimate the amount of care given to the vine on the borders of the Rhine or Lake Leman, the terraces constructed stone upon stone on the slopes of the hills, the transport of manure and also of earth to a height of two or three hundred feet, we come to the conclusion that on the whole the expenditure of work necessary to cultivate vines is more considerable in Switzerland or on the banks of the Rhine than it is under glass in London suburbs.
This may seem paradoxical, because it is generally believed that vines grow of themselves in the south of Europe, and that the vinegrower's work costs nothing. But gardeners and horticulturists, far from contradicting us, confirm our assertions. "The most advantageous culture in England is vine culture," wrote a practical
