advance, they lay them down. They put out new shoots, and fill
all the intermediate space, till all trace of order is lost. They have
ultimately about one foot square to each vine. They begin to yield good
profit at five or six years old, and last one hundred, or one hundred
and fifty years. A vigneron at Volnay carried me into his vineyard,
which was of about ten arpents. He told me, that some years it produced
him sixty pieces of wine, and some not more than three pieces. The
latter is the most advantageous produce, because the wine is better in
quality, and higher in price, in proportion as less is made; and the
expenses, at the same time, diminish in the same proportion. Whereas,
when much is made, the expenses are increased, while the quality and
price become less. In very plentiful years, they often give one half the
wine for casks to contain the other half. The cask for two hundred and
fifty bottles costs six livres in scarce years, and ten in plentiful.
The feuillette is of one hundred and twenty-five bottles, the piece of
two hundred and fifty, and the queue or botte of five hundred. An arpent
rents at from twenty to sixty livres. A farmer of ten arpents has about
three laborers engaged by the year. He pays four louis to a man, and
half as much to a woman, and feeds them. He kills one hog, and salts it,
which is all the meat used in the family during the year. Their ordinary
food is bread and vegetables. At Pomard and Volnay, I observed them
eating good wheat bread; at Meursault, rye. I asked the reason of the
difference. They told me, that the white wines fail in quality much
oftener than the red, and remain on hand. The farmer, therefore, cannot
afford to feed his laborers so well. At Meursault only white wines
are made, because there is too much stone for the red. On such slight
circumstances depends the condition of man! The wines which have given
such celebrity to Burgundy grow only on the Cote, an extent of about
five leagues long, and half a league wide. They begin at Chambertin,
and go through Vougeau, Romanie, Veaune, Nuits, Beaune, Pomard, Volnay,
Meursault, and end at Monrachet. Those of the two last are white; the
others red. Chambertin, Vougeau, and Beaune are the strongest, and will
bear transportation and keeping. They sell, therefore, on the spot for
twelve hundred livres the queue, which is forty-eight sous the bottle.
Volnay is the best of the other reds, equal in flavor to Chambertin,
&c., but