The cottages of the labouring poor are not without this ornament, and
the produce is usually sold by them to their wealthier neighbours, for
the manufacture of wine. The price per bushel is from 4s. to 16s.;
but the variableness of the season frequently disappoints them in the
crops, the produce of which is sometimes laid up as a setoff to the
rent."[6]

We have heard too of attempts in England to train the vine on
the sides of hills, and a few years since an individual lost a
considerable sum of money in making the experiment in the Isle of
Wight.

At page 257, observes the editor,

_A VINEYARD_

"Associated as it is with all our ideas of beauty and plenty, is,
in general, a disappointing object. The hop plantations of our own
country are far more picturesque. In France, the vines are trained
upon poles, seldom more than three or four feet in height; and 'the
pole-clipt vineyard' of poetry is not the most inviting of real
objects. In Spain, poles for supporting vines are not used; but
cuttings are planted, which are not permitted to grow very high, but
gradually form thick and stout stocks. In Switzerland, and in the
German provinces, the vineyards are as formal as those of France.
But in Italy is found the true vine of poetry, 'surrounding the stone
cottage with its girdle, flinging its pliant and luxuriant branches
over the rustic veranda, or twining its long garland from tree to
tree.'[7] It was the luxuriance and the beauty of her vines and her
olives that tempted the rude people of the north to pour down upon her