PART FIRST.
CHAPTER FIRST.
Of the influence of Climate, Soil, Exposure, Seasons, and Culture, on the Vine.
OF all the plants which cover the surface of our globe, there is, perhaps, none more sensible of the action of the numerous causes which influence vegetation, than the vine. Not only do we see it varied under different climates, but even in the same climate, we see its products changed in the most astonishing manner, in consequence of a difference in the nature of the soil, the exposure of the vineyard, or the system of cultivation pursued in it.
Causes which have no perceptible effect on other plants, act so powerfully on this, as to seem to change its nature. In all the wine countries, there are instances of vines of the same variety, cultivated in the same manner, and in contiguous fields, differing more than one-half in value, in consequence of a slight difference in their exposure, or of the slope of the hill on which they are planted.
