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out in distinct relief. Steinberger Cabinet, by some, is | have woolen comforters tied over their heads, so as to considered equal, if not superior, to Johannisberger, while Ranuethalerberg has its enthusiastic admirers, as also have Hockheimer and Marcobrunner.

The Rhine vintage rarely commences until late in the Autumn, and is sometimes delayed even into the Winter. The pickers, sturdy peasant girls of eighteen and twenty

allow of the ends falling down their necks behind. The men, who perform the heavier work, occasionally get themselves up in jäger costume-gray suits piped and faced with green, boots half-way up the legs, and tufts of feathers stuck jauntily in their mountaineers' hats.

Singing in chorus some song in praise of the Rhine and

its wine, the pickers commence at the foot of the slope, one to each row of vines, and move steadily forward in a compact line, with all the precision of disciplined soldiers. With little spring shears, which they carry secured to their waists, they snip off the riper bunches as they pass along, picking from them, at the same time, the shriveled and ripely-rotten berries, and throwing them into a separate receptacle. This is what is termed the "auslese," and from these selected grapes a special and luscious class of wine is made, of fine flavor, and more or less sweet, according as the grapes have attained the stage known as edelfuide-in other words, a "noble rottenness"-or are merely ordinarily ripe.

When the pickers have filled their tubs, men go round and collect the contents in oval-shaped wooden vessels, called "legeln," which they carry strapped to their backs. From these the grapes are consigned to the handmills stationed by the roadside, and after being thoroughly crushed are emptied together with the expressed juice into a large cask, fastened by strong chains to a kind of dray, which requires a couple of horses to drag it up the steep winding roads. The aperture of the cask is invariably secured by a padlock before the dray leaves the vineyard.

When I "do" the Rhine it is my invariable practice to order a Niersteinerberg, a very cheap but well-flavored. wine, with which I mix seltzer water, and I have a better and more palatable drink than swells or ignoramuses who order Johannisberger or Hockheimer, which they do not get, although paying through the nose. The one exceptionally fine Hockheimer growth comes from the vineyards of the Dom Dechanei. From the other side of the Rhine we have the Heidesheimer and the Pincannoir, or black Burgundy, while within the gorge of the Rhine itself the only wine of particular repute produced is Assmanhauser. Bacharach was famed in the Middle Ages for its wine:

"The old rhyme keeps running in my brain;
At Bacharach on the Rhine,

At Hochheim on the Main,
And at Würzburg on the Stein,

Grow the three best kinds of wine."

From the vineyards in the rear of Ehrenbreitstein come vintages of Kreutzberger, a rather agreeable red wine, while Linz, a few miles lower down the river, produces a red wine, Dattenberger. From the valley of the Ahr, which falls into the Rhine near Sinzig, midway between Coblenz and Bonn, come the superior red wines of Walporzheimer, Ahrweilerer and Bodendorfer, fine, if not deep, in color, slightly astringent, somewhat akin to a natural Port, and exhibiting really refined vinous qualities. It is in this valley of vineyards, and in the neighborhood of the jagged basaltic mountain known as the Landskron, that the celebrated Apollinaris Brunnen takes its rise.

The wines of the Moselle stand in high repute. The Piesporter, Grünhauser, Brauenberger and Olewig Neuberger are the most esteemed, the last named being grown near the vast Roman amphitheatre, where Constantine had his captives torn in pieces by wild beasts, and the ruins of which to-day stand solitary in the midst of the vines. The Deiderheimer Kirchenstück is a gorgeous golden-colored wine of such excessive richness that a sip of it is a sufficiency.

Bavaria contributes excellent Stein and Leisten wine, and that known as "Holy Ghost wine," and which was originally the only Stein wine sold in the squat bocksbeutel, now extensively used to palm off inferior growths as genuine Stein.

Switzerland is strong in the red wines of Neufchâtel

and the white wines of the Vaud. Yvorne, or the "Wine of Blood," is a remarkably pleasant wine. Austria yields Vöslauer, Gumpoldkirchner and Klosterneuberger. Styria contributes, among others, the luscious Maraschino, while Hungary holds a foremost place through its historic Tokay, anent which I must say a word or two.

Formerly Imperial Tokay invariably figured at the banquets of Kings, and was the accustomed present from Austrian Archdukes and Emperors to those they delighted to honor. It was the wine which, at the Council of Trent, Pope Paul III. proclaimed to be worthy even of the pontifical throne, and which to secure a regular supply of, the Czars and Czarinas, so recently as a quarter of a century ago, kept a company of Russian soldiers constantly on Hungarian soil. The Tokay Hegyalja, where this renowned wine is produced, is situated between the 48th and 49th degrees of northern latitude, and forms the southern spur of the volcanic mountain-chain which commences south of the Carpathians, and prolongs self almost uninterruptedly to Tokay. The district is twenty-four square miles in extent, and one-fifth of its entire area is planted with vines, terraces being constructed on many of the steeper slopes to prevent the earth from being washed away. As all grand wines aro grown contiguous to some river, so is the Tokay Hegyalja watered by the Theyss and the Bodrog.

Russia contributes through the Crimea both red and white wines. Portugal gives the world its renowned Port, so loved and dreaded by those subject to the gout.

The Douro region, producing the finest wines, comprises the slopes of the mountains bordering the river of the same name, in its course from the Spanish frontier to the province of Minho, and it is on the hilly banks of a tributary stream, named the Corgo, that the Port wine vineyards-the soil of which is extremely stony, due to the friability of the slaty schist rock of which the hills are formed-are principally situated. There is no wine imitated so extensively, and, alas! so well, as Port.

Madeira is a wine which it is commonly said cannot be lrank too old. It is a wine for heroes. Of the wines of Italy, Chianti and the luscious Lacryma Christi, the exigencies of space preclude more than mere mention. Greece produces Red and White Hymettus, and a red wine of Naxos, while Turkey, Roumania, and Cyprus, contribute wines but little known to the outside world.

American wines are coming steadily to the front, the sweet and dry California, the Catawba, the Scuppernong, the Isabella, and other grapes, producing wines that in the near future are destined to take the market by storm. Certain of our red wines need only a finesse to equal a first-rate Burgundy, while the white growths yield a wine having all the delicacy of the Rhine. Our Champagne, too, is yearly improving in tone. From the earliest period of our colonization the vine attracted tho attention of the settlers, and in 1564 wine was made from native grapes in Florida. The first attempt, however, to establish a regular vineyard dates from 1620, in Virginia, with European vines, and the prospects were so encouraging, that in 1630 the growers sent for French vinedressers to tend their plants. This is not the country to let "a good thing" languish, and the American wine is destined to become a sturdy battler in the wines of the world.

And now a few words on that terror to viticulturists, the phylloxera.

In certain localities the falling off in the 1873 vintage was due entirely to that new scourge of the vine in Europe, the Phylloxera vastatrix, erroneously supposed to have been originally imported into France in 1823

with certain specimens of the Vitis cordifolia of the United States for the Jardin des Plantes, but which only manifested itself in the French vineyards some years ago at Pujault on the right bank of the Rhône and in the department of the Gard, whence it spread to Rouquemaure and Villeneuve-les-Avignon in Vaucluse, appearing in the course of 1866 in the vineyards of the plain of La Crau in the Bouches du Rhône, when M. Delorme, of Arles, called the attention of the scientific world to its ravages. By 1867 all the vineyards of Vaucluse, together with several of those of the Gard, were more or less attacked by this insect. and in the following year

t 3

1. The first rudiments of the disease. 2. Small brown specks on the grape. 3. Increased size and growth of the speck. 4. Withered appearance of very young grapes. 5. The feelers of the parasite. 6. Increased size of ditto. 7. White membrane which forms the mycelium. 8. The Oidium Tuckeri or seed pod of the disease. 9. The sporules or seeds.

VINE ATTACKED BY PHYLLOXERA,

the scourge, spreading along the banks of the Bas-Rhône, eventually made its appearance in the department of the Drôme. In 1869 it spread westerly in the direction of Nimes, and easterly in that of Aix, showing itself, moreover, in the vicinity of Toulon and at Lunel-Viel. In 1873 it appeared in the Charente, and no doubt its ravages influenced the falling off in the produce of that department.

In 1871 the Minister of Agriculture offered a prize of 20,000 francs, which the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce petitioned to have increased to 1,000,000, for the discovery of a means of ridding France of the scourge. The disease, however, continued to spread, and at the close of 1874 it occupied more or less the whole area of the Lower Rhône from Valence to the mouth, and from Montpelier to Toulouse. The scourge has abated during late years, but the vine-culturist is ever in terror of this grim and destructive visitor. The grape phylloxera is indigenous to the North American Continent east of the Rocky Mountains, and is found from Canada to Florida In the wild vines of the woods, and in the cultivated vines in most of the States. It presents itself in two different types. That which makes galls on the leaves is called Gallicola; it is smooth and very prolific, and exists only as an agamous, wingless female. It is quite tran

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ON A COUNTRY ROAD.

BY ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE. ALONG these low pleached lanes, on such a day, So soft a day as this, through shade and sun, With glad grave eyes that scanned the glad wild way, And heart still hovering o'er a song begun,

And smile that warmed the world with benison, Our father, lord long since of lordly rhyme,

Long since hath haply ridden, when the limo

Bloomed broad above him, flowering where he came. Because thy passage once made warm this clime, Our father Chaucer, here we praise thy name.

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Each year that England clothes herself with May,
She takes thy likeness on her. Time hath spun
Fresh raiment all in vain and strange array

For earth and man's new spirit, fain to shun
Things past for dreams of better to be won,
Through many a century since thy funeral chime
Rang, and men deemed it death's most direful crime,
To have spared not thee for very love or shame;
And yet, while mists round last year's memories climb,
Our father Chaucer, here we praise thy name.

Each turn of the old wild road whereon we stray,
Meseems, might bring us face to face with one
Whom seeing we could not but give thanks, and pray
For England's love, our father, and her son,
To speak with us as onco in days long done
With all men, sage and churl and monk and mime,
Who knew not as we know the soul sublime

That sang for song's love more than lust of fame. Yet, though this be not, yet, in happy time,

Our father Chaucer, here we praise thy name. Friend, even as bees about the flowering thyme, Years crowd on years, till hoar decay begrime Nanes once beloved; but, seeing the sun the same, As birds of Autumn fain to praise the prime, Our father Chaucer, here we praise thy name.

THE LIGHTNING-ROD.

ACCORDING to Engineering, attention has only recently been called in England to the use of iron as a metal for lightning-rods. In that country, where the subject has been left in the hands of the manufacturers, lightningrods are made of pure copper, and, consequently, are far too expensive for general use. In other countries iron rods are in vogue, and found to answer the purpose very well, besides being inexpensive. In Canada a church was recently protected by a round iron rod three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and welded at each joint. The upper end of the rod was drawn to a point, and a dampground connection provided for the lower end. The rod was secured to the church by galvanized iron staples. The total cost was under fifteen dollars. While upon this subject, we may mention that Franklin was probably anticipated in his discovery of lightning - conduction. According to M. de Rochas, the Etruscans understood the art of guiding the lightning. Servius relates that in ancient times the priests ignited their sacrifices by lightning; and on one occasion Tullius Hostilius was struck dead because he neglected the precautions laid down by Numa.

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THE VINEYARD AND THE WINE-PRESS.-TRIMMING AND PACKING GRAPES FOR MARKET, NEAR MARLBORO'-ON-THE-HUDSON.-SEE PAGE 567.

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