"It is a common practice to go through the vines with a plow every fall, and throw up a good ridge of earth against the stalks. The Hungarians have a more effectual way of guaranteeing against the cold of then rigorous winters, which is to lay the vines on the ground, cover them with straw, and on the straw throw the earth; without this, it is said, they could produce no wine at all. Our native grapes are generally hardy, and will live wherever their fruit will ripen; but occasionally there is a severe season which seems to touch the very heart of the wood, and so enfeeble it that it falls an easy prey to disease. It was noticed that the mildew set in with great destructiveness after the two hard winters of 1854 and 1856.

"The thorough covering employed in Hungary would secure it against such occasional risks, and also might render it possible to grow European vines in our country. By its means, too, we could, perhaps, make the Scuppernong live in our Northern States, and obtain from it a sparkling wine, of foam and flavor unsurpassed. From these considerations and others, we recommend to the wine-makers of our more Northern States to lay down and thoroughly cover their vines regularly every fall; and to those in milder regions, to bank up the earth against the stalks as is done in France.

"We have derived most of our instruction in vine-dressing from the Germans, in whose native country there are no sunbeams to spare; and the celebrated Risling grape is said to hardly ever ripen, and thus, perhaps, we have been led to attach too much importance to letting the fruit remain on the vine as long as possible before gathering. If we have been in error, it would be well worth while to know it, for, besides the loss by shrinkage, the ravage of insects and birds, quadrupeds and bipeds, during the last fortnight of the vine-dressers' watchings, is most disheartening. Now, it is contended by good authority in France that early vintages are the best, and that it is important, not merely in regard to quantity but quality also, to gather the fruit before it becomes over-ripe. possibly what is true of white wine may not be so of red wine, to which last-named kind atten-tion is so widely directed in Europe. Here the proportion of white wine to red is very small, and it may be said that red is the rule, and white the exception.