But, besides pruning the luxuriance of the plant, and preventing it from wasting its strength in large quantities of fruit and foliage, it is necessary, as happens in few other cases[1], that nutritious substances should be sparingly supplied to it. Manures which are so necessary to most plants, and especially to those cultivated for their farinaceous matter, are injurious here. It is true, they add to the vigour of vegetation, but they debase the quality of the wine. Accordingly, we find that, in some wine districts, the use of dung was prohibited by law. The reputation of the wine was considered public property. "By public decree," says Olivier de Serres, "the use of dung was forbid at Gaillac, lest it should hurt the character of their white wines with which they supplied their neighbours of Toulouse, Montauban, Cas-
- ↑ It is observed, in the West Indies, that when sugar plantations are richly manured, the quantity of sugar produced is large, but the quality is inferior. It is for this reason that the sugars of the rich alluvial soils of Demerara are so much inferior to those of Barbadoes, which grow on a soil more exhausted. It is also observed, that the berry of the West India coffee produces two large seeds, while the coffee plant of Arabia yields only one small seed in the berry. West India coffee grows on richly manured soils, while that of Arabia grows on a poor and meagre soil; but though much inferior in size and produce, it is infinitely superior in the flavour, for which coffee is valued.
