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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

ANTHONY, EARL OF SHAFTSBURY.

MY LORD,

THE Country, where these observations were made, hath vanity enough to overvalue every thing it produces and it is hard to live in a place, and not take some tincture from the manners of the people. Yet I think I should scarce have ventured to trouble your lordship with these French trifles, had not your lordship yourself encouraged me to believe, that it would not be unacceptable to you, if I took this way (for I ought all manner of ways) to express that duty and observance wherewith I am,

MY LORD,

Your lordship's most humble,

and most obedient servant,

Ch. Ch. Feb. 1, 1679.

JOHN LOCKE.

WINE.

IN Languedoc they plant their vineyards in February; and they choose the quarter before the full, as the fittest time of the moon to do it in.

They set the cuttings they plant exactly in quincunx, and the rows at four and a half, five, and six pans distance.-A pan is 9 inches.

About Tholoun in Provence, and also about Bourdeaux, I have seen vines and corn interchangeably; viz. two or three rows of vines, and then a ridge or two of corn.

They set their plants about a spit deep, and always leave two knots above ground.

In setting the vines, they dig the ground sometimes all over, sometimes only in trenches.

They plant their vineyards both in plains and on hills, with indifferency; but say that on hills, especially opening to the east or south, the wine is best: in plains they produce most. The soil about Frontignan, where the best muscat grows, is so stony, that one can see no earth at all. And the vine de Pontac, so much esteemed in England, grows on a rising open to the west, in a white sand mixed with a little gravel, which one would think would bear nothing; but there is such a particularity in the soil, that at Mr. Pontac's, near Bourdeaux, the merchants assured me that the wine growing in the very next vineyards, where there was only a ditch between, and the soil, to appearance, perfectly the same, was by no means so good. The same also they observe about Montpelier, where two vineyards, bounding one

upon another, constantly produce the one good and the other bad wine.

A vineyard, from its planting, will last fifty, eighty, or an hundred years. The older the vineyard, the fewer the grapes, but the better the wine. New planted vineyards produce more, but the wine not so good: it is generally green, i. e. more inclining to verjuice.

The vineyard thus planted, the next year at pruning they cut them, so that (if conveniently there can) there may be four shoots next year, near the ground, at least three, spreading several ways, which may come to be so many standing branches, out of which the shoots are to sprout. There being thus left the beginnings of three or four branches spreading different ways, ever afterwards, when they come to prune, they leave about an inch of that last year's shoot, which grew straight out of the top of each of the four standing branches; all the rest they cut off clean to the old stock.

If by chance they find (when they are pruning) a vine decayed, or gone in any place, they dig a trench from the next stock to that place, and laying the old stock along in the trench, order it so that one last year's shoot of the said stock shall come out just where the laid stock grew, and another where there was one wanting these they cut off about eight or nine inches above the ground, which being fed by the great old root (which they move not when they lay the old stock, but so loosen it only as it may let the old stock be gently bent down, and so be buried in the trench) will bear the next vintage; whereas, if they planted a cutting in the place where they found a stock wanting, it would not bear in three or four years. By these young plants, they stick in a good strong branch, a pretty deal longer than the plant, which they leave there to defend it.

They prune their vines in December, January, February, and March: they that do it so late as the latter end of February, or the month of March, are such as have vineyards apt to shoot early in the spring; and, if cold weather nip the young shoots, they have the fewer grapes at the vintage. And in pruning their vines they

observe to do it in one year in the new and another in the old of the moon, or else they say they will grow too much to wood.

They turn the ground of their vineyards twice a year; about the end of February or in March, and again in May; they do it either by ploughing betwixt the rows of vines, or, which they count better, by digging, in which they sometimes use little spades, but most commonly large houghs, the usual way of delving in this country; in which way they turn up the earth as deep and much faster than our men do with spades in England.

Pigeons' dung and hens' dung they make use of in their vineyards, as an improvement that will increase the quantity without injuring the goodness of their wine but horse dung, or that of any beast, they say, spoils the goodness of their wine. This they have so strong an opinion of at Galliac, a place about thirty leagues from Montpelier, that, if a peasant there should use any but birds' dung about his vines, his neighbours would burn his house; because they would not have the wine of that place lose its reputation.

I have been told that a sheep's horn buried at the root of a vine will make it bear well even in barren ground. I have no great faith in it, but mention it, because it may so easily be tried.

But I suppose the husbandry in their vineyards differs much, both according to the fashion of several countries, and the difference of soil; for I remember that, at Mr. Pontac's vineyard near Bourdeaux, the vines in some parts of the vineyard grew four or five feet high, and were tied to stakes; and in another part of the same vineyard they were directed along upon the ground, not above a foot from it, between little low stakes or laths, so that the old branches stand on each side the root like a pair of arms spread out, and lying open towards the south. The reason of this different way of culture I could not learn of the labourers for want of understanding Gascoin. In Languedoc they use no stakes at all to support their vines, but they trust them to the strength of their own growth, pruning them

as I have abovementioned; which makes them say in the more northerly parts of France, that in Languedoc they have wine without taking pains for it.

When the grapes are ready to turn, they go into the vineyards, and there taking four, five, or six of the neighbour shoots, twist them together at the top; and thus the shoots all through the vineyard, being as it were tied together, stand upright, whereby the grapes have more sun, and perhaps the sap too is hindered from running into the wood and leaves.

They have about Montpelier these following sorts of grapes:

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4. Barbaroux.

5. Grumeau negre.
6. Grumeau blanc.

7. Grumeau blanc muscat.
8. Laugeby.
9. L'ougré.

10. Raisin de St. Jean.
11. Marroquin.
12. Marroquin gris.
13. Marroquin bleu.
14. Clarette.

15. Clarette rouge.
16. Ovilla de negre.
17. Ovilla de blanc.
18. Covilla de Gal.
19. Ramounen.
20. Unio negro.
21. Unio blanquo.

22. Corinth.

23. Effouimu.

24. Iragnou.

25. Piquepoul.
26. Farret.
27. Piquardan.
28. Musquat negre.
29. Musquat blanc.
30. Musquat d'Espagne.
31. Palofedo.

32. Servan.

33. Damas violet.
34. Raison de la fon.
35. Sadoulo boyyier.
36. Sergousan.
37. L'ambrusque.
38. Rovergas.
39. Coltort.
40. Musquadassas.
41. Crispata.

These are the names of grapes they have about Montpelier, as they are called in the pattoy of that country.

1. The espiran, a round, black, very sweet and very wholesome grape they eat them in great quantities when thorough ripe (which is about the middle of August, stylo novo) without any fear of surfeit; and they

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