The vines called the semilion and muscat-fou are very extensively cultivated, those most noted are the black morillon, of two varieties, the madaleine and the vine of Ischia; the latter produces fine fruit as high as north lat. 48°.
The bloom upon the grape, which so delicately tints the skin, is considered in proportion to its prevalence a proof of attention or negligence in the culture.
The age of which the vine bears well, is from sixty to seventy years, or more, but in the common course of things it is six or seven years before it is in full bearing. The vines are pruned three times before they bear fruit, when this operation is again repeated. In France the vine is propagated by layers of buds, which are taken up after the vintage, and by slips chosen from among the cuttings; vines from the latter live longest and bear most fruit, though those from the layers shoot earliest. The general method of training the vine in France, is the «tinge bas» or low stem training, the young shoots of the year being tied to stakes from four to five feet in height.
The season of the vintage is one of stirring interest and alacrity, the merry groups of grape gatherers now to be seen in almost every field, commence their employment as early as possible after the sun has dissipated the dew, and the gathering is uniformly continued with as much rapidity as possible, if the weather continue fair, so as to terminate the pressing in one day.
In concluding this subject, we may very well exemplify the general distribution of the vegetable tribes in this part of France, by observing that merry Bacchus presides over the cheerful hills, Flora and Pomona grace the laughing vallies and the sylvan shades, while the bountiful Ceres extends her dominion over the upland plains, and the smiling prairies of the fertilizing Cher and Loire.
GEOLOGY OF TOURAINE.
The GEOLOGY of Touraine, being of a nature particularly worthy the attention of the scientific enquirer, we may properly close these restricted remarks, by a few cursory observations on so interesting a subject. In contemplating the geognostic structure of this department, the eye of the investigator encounters none of those strikingly bold and sublime operations of nature, almost every where to be met with in the primitive and volcanic regions of the globe.
Here with but a few solitary exceptions, the whole surface of the province presents a continuous series of rounded and gentle undulations, exhibiting to the careless glance of the unobservant, and to the uninitiated, one vast homogeneous mass of earthy and stony materials.
But when this wide spread, and apparently uninvestigable aggregation of particles, comes under the scrutinizing eye of science, a beautiful and systematic arrangement of undigenous formations are clearly developed. Individually containing within themselves the marvellous and decisive evidence of their comparative existence, in their present relative positions.